Global Letter Exchange: A Teacher's Experience
Virginie Breton is a second grade teacher in Saint Vincent du Lorouër, a town located in Western France. As part of RESPECT's Letter Exchange Program, her students have been exchanging letters with Burundi school students since last September.
To take full advantage of this program and make it more exciting, Virginie sometimes encloses fun, useful or simply unusual gifts in the packages she sends. Recently, she also discussed children's rights with her students so they can better understand and relate to the situation their Burundian pen pals face.
Virginie wrote to share her experience with her class and RESPECT's program. We wanted to publish her e-mail as a way to encourage more schools, classes and teachers to participate in this program and play a part in the education of refugee children.
"Last September, one of my colleagues, Magali Pichon, a first grade teacher who was already participating in RESPECT's Letter Exchange Program, suggested that I take part in a letter exchange with a school of refugee children.
"Since I was already involved in a similar project with another class, I was concerned about being too busy for this new project. Yet, I couldn't resist the temptation to discover a different culture and raise awareness among my students of the problems certain children face. That's why I decided to embark on this adventure with my second graders.
"Quickly, a genuine bond developed naturally between Claudel Nkunda (the director of La Vision second-chance school in Bujumbura, Burundi) and me. We often share our ideas and discuss our plans for the future. We would like to expand our exchange and do more together to help these children who are so far away from us and yet so dear to our hearts.
"Last Christmas we sent them maps as holiday presents. Currently, we're also selling flowers to collect funds. All proceeds will go to La Vision school. Last December, a greeting card sale allowed us to collect €180 EUR (about $284 USD), which we sent to Claudel.
"In December, my students and I discussed children's rights. They were very surprised to learn that certain students their age have to work very hard just to have something to eat. They also realized that children's rights are not always respected in some countries, that going to school is a privilege for these children, and therefore it is important to help them get an education.
"They have a lot of questions about their Burundian pen pals. Gradually, they start realizing how unfair the world in which they live can be. It's not easy to talk about the more serious, intolerable topics with such young children (my students are between seven and eight years old). You always have to watch what you tell them and what pictures you show them. They shouldn't feel guilty or carry the burden of men's folly.
"To conclude this project, they drew pictures and wrote about their hopes for the future. They were asked to write a sentence beginning with Some day, we'll need to... (see picture). The pictures were sent along with the letters and inflatable balloons were enclosed for all our pen pals.
"This is the first time I've taken part in a letter exchange program (I've been teaching for four years). I really wanted to do this, not just for the sake of writing, but rather to connect with other people and to give the children a new perspective.
"I was really attracted to the humanitarian aspect of the exchange. When I was 18, I wanted to be a teacher or a nurse so I could work for a humanitarian cause. In a way, with this project, you could say that I was able to combine both. It's important to show our children that each of us has a part to play in the destiny of Man and the world."