Humanitarians at Haude!

This week we held our first meeting at Haude Elementary! It’s been a while in the making, but it finally happened and it was perfect! Kelly Sells headed up the meeting sharing pictures from our partner school in Haiti. We talked about the similarities and differences that the students noticed between themselves and the Haitian students. “They wear uniforms there, we don’t.” “They grow food in their school garden, we don’t.” “They are sad because they don’t have any stuff like we have.” WAIT!!! Hold the phone! We had to back up to the pictures to see if this was true. When we looked again, we saw lots of smiles! It is something to think about! Can kids be happy without all of the STUFF?? In the end, the students decided it looks like the Haitian students are kids just like them.

We wanted to introduce ourselves to our new Haitian friends by making self-protraits. During our upcoming trip to Haiti we will plan on sharing the portraits and making some to bring back!

Some of the students also got a chance to be a humanitarian on the spot during our friendship bracelet making program.  All of the kids got string to make a bracelet to wear as a reminder to be kind, help others, and spread friendship.  Since all of the kids didn’t know how to braid, those who did took the time to help out!  It’s pretty fun to see kids helping kids make friendship bracelets!  We talked about what it means to be a humanitarian and the choice we often have to spread anger or change a situation for the better.  It only seems fair sometimes to push back when we are pushed.  But, as one student put it, that is NOT a solution.  And she is right.  Pushing, name calling, gossip, and disrespect will never end if we just pay it back or spread it around.  We have to stop all of that, decide to change the ripple effect of hate, pass some love around instead.  We decided that we would look for ways to help each other as members of the club, as students at Haude, as community members, and in our families.  Humanitarians!!!