Eye Opening Project For Newtown Students And Educators

By Nancy K. Crevier

Reed Intermediate School (RIS) reading specialist Pam Kohn, NHS applied technology instructor Maryann Snieckus, RIS Principal Donna Denniston, former Easton principal Angie Sneiderman, and retired Dr Micheline Williams traveled April 13 to 23 with RIS teacher Karen King on her third journey to the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana, West Africa.

The educators made the trip to assist Ms King in implementing an ongoing school-to-school program between the children of RIS and the Carolyn A. Miller Elementary (CAME) School in Ghana. It was the first trip there for Ms Denniston, Ms Sneiderman, and Ms Kohn, the third for Ms Snieckus, and while she has traveled extensively in other regions, it was the first time that Dr Williams had visited the Buduburam Refugee Camp. Photojournalist Alison Lee of MTVU also accompanied the group.

For two years, Ms King’s classes have developed a pen pal relationship with students living in the refugee camp, where families displaced by the violent Liberian Civil Wars have settled, some for the past decade.

In sharing photos and letters, nearly 200 RIS students explored the commonalities in the lives they live and the day-to-day lives of the children in Ghana through the efforts of Ms King and other educators: Peter Bernson, Carla Tischio, Petrice DiVanno, Lil Martensen, Sara Strait, Nancy Handler, and Michelle Tenenbaum. Not only that, other staff members developed pen pal relationships, and the community of parents, sibling, local civic groups, and the children became involved in supporting the CAME School. In 2007, RIS students raised nearly $4,000 to send school supplies to the school.

“When children in the hallway discuss world events while waiting for the bus, and educate families about the complicated politics of Africa over dinner, you know that you have succeeded in creating a global perspective and empathetic connection,” said Ms King.

As a volunteer for Unite for Sight, a Newtown-based organization founded by Jennifer Staple providing eye care to third world countries, Ms King made her first visit to Ghana in July of 2007, and was able to visit the Buduburam Refugee Camp and meet the children and staff of the RIS sister school. It was Ms Staple, said Ms King, who opened the door to a pen pal program due to her relationship with Ghana eye clinic promoter and CAME School founder Karrus Hayes. “I honestly had very little knowledge of Ghana, Liberia, or what it means to be a refugee. I had to teach myself first, and then my students and I together learned more about Liberian history, culture, and politics,” Ms King said.

The enthusiasm of the children and teachers at CAME School made her determined to implement a program to take the pen pal letters to a higher level.

With the help of teachers from the Newtown school district, Ms King developed the eye-to-eye project. “The goal is to explore the art of photography and creative writing as a means of personal expression,” Ms King explained. Ms Snieckus and another RIS teacher, Barbara Mancher, and Ms King taught basic photography skills to the RIS children, then traveled back to Ghana in February 2008 to teach those skills to the students at CAME. Students at both schools received the same assignment, which was to use photography to describe daily life, families, and the community to the pen pal. Along with the cameras, donated by Newtown resident Paul Carpenter, notebooks were provided to each child to record their stories in their own words.

The project was  only partly finished, though.

When the four educators returned in April to Ghana, they brought with them the photo albums made by RIS students, allowing students in both countries to compare the images and words that divulged their lives. Using the pen pals’ photographs as inspiration, the children were encouraged to create poetry, artwork, songs, and prose, guided by writing lessons developed by Ms Kohn and Newtown teachers Carla Tischio, Petrice DiVanno, and Sara Strait.

The trip to Ghana was unexpected for Ms Kohn, who had expected to simply write up the lessons and view the results from afar. But when a spot to Africa opened up for the April trip, she decided to grab the opportunity. “My first reaction was to think, ‘No, I can’t do that,’” Ms Kohn said. But after reflecting on the likelihood of ever being involved in a project of this scope again, she decided to go.

Five shots, a passport and visa, an SOS emergency evacuation form, insurance, and countless details later, she found herself within a matter of two weeks aboard the plane for Africa. Packed into a suitcase that went with her were folders for each of the teachers, four writing lessons typed up with objectives, the materials necessary to teach the lessons, and examples of student work to use as models.

At CAME, Ms Kohn and the others reviewed the lessons with the instructors there and introduced the writing lessons. Poetry, journal writing, and creative responses to the book I’m In Charge Of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor resulted in some “very beautiful, some raw” writings by the students. “The students were very agreeable and eager to please,” said Ms Kohn. “They wanted you to read their responses and comment on them.” Unlike the students at RIS who are encouraged to write in journals on a daily basis, Ms Kohn found the writing lessons at CAME to be quite structured. “There was a lot of copying from the board. I got the impression that journal writing and free writing were not common assignments.”

Ms King agreed that the results of the eye-to-eye project were stunning. “For all of the trouble we went through to teach about a world different from our own, in the end we learned so much about ourselves,” she said.

“I knew I would see sights that would be unforgettable and develop relationships that would last a lifetime,” said Ms Kohn. “This was all true. It was hard, hot, and unsettling at times, but I am so glad I went.”

The pen pal and eye-to-eye programs have resonated with students, families, and educators in both countries in ways that she could never have imagined when she first initiated the pen pal program, said Ms King. “Being able to visit Buduburam on behalf of my students and our school really brought the friendship to a new level. To see my colleagues, both African and American, working with tremendous dedication under such difficult conditions renewed my own commitment to teaching,” said Ms King. “Travel does require taking some chances, and stepping outside of one’s comfort zone. Volunteerism is the same, in that it helps a person to step outside of him or herself for a little while, and participate in something bigger, and that is for the greater good.”

‘Everybody can contribute’

Dr Micheline Williams wants people to know that anyone can be a volunteer. “Everybody can contribute in some way,” she said. For her, the April trip to Buduburam Refugee Camp was a little different than what the others experienced. “I did not travel as a teacher. I paid my own way and traveled under the umbrella of Unite for Sight,” she said. A personal friend of Ms Denniston and Ms Sneiderman, Dr Williams found out about the trip when she was contacted about medical issues concerning the travelers. As a doctor and having traveled previously in Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco, and Egypt, not only was she able to provide medical information, but she offered her services as another pair of hands and her skills as a photographer on the trip.

Coincidentally, Ms Staples had organized a huge conference for eye specialists at Yale just prior to the trip, visited by ophthalmologist RNs from Africa. Dr Williams housed one of the ophthalmologist RNs for a week in Newtown, then spent two and a half days assisting the ophthalmologist RNs in Buduburam Refugee Camp when she arrived.

“We set up a triage room in a church, and already we had a line of people waiting for us when we opened. I helped with eye testing, treating eye infections, and giving out glasses. Many of the eyeglasses were donated by the Newtown Lions Club and other organizations. We treated glaucoma, and we treated cataracts, which are very common in Ghana because of the hot, bright sun. If they needed surgery for cataracts, surgery was provided at the Crystal Eye Clinic just outside of the camp,” she said.

What was most difficult for her was not being able to provide for the many other ailments beyond eye issues, or realizing that an eye problem was beyond their help. “It was hard to be there. You can’t always help,” she said.

The days that she was not helping in the eye clinic, Dr Williams provided an extra set of hands in the classroom. “I’m also a photographer, so I spent time sharing stories with the kids, and doing photography with them,” she said.

The Buduburam Refugee Camp was not at all what she expected, Dr Williams said. “They have food there, they have houses. Everybody is happy. But it is the older people who have suffered through the civil wars that are hurting. You see that when you visit in the homes, but not at the school. Everybody was so lovely and kind.”

Lifestyle contrasts are painfully apparent upon return, said Dr Williams. “The needs here seem so shallow. When the ophthalmologist RN stayed with me, I am so ashamed at my house. He could sleep 100 people in a house like mine. But, I know that this is the way it is. It is almost embarrassing, though,” she said.

Dr Williams’ husband, also a doctor, will be retiring in the not too distant future, she said, and with their children nearly grown, they plan to devote more time to volunteering, whether stateside or abroad. “When we are in Africa, I feel we can take care of these people in the way we once planned to be a doctor. We drop all the baggage of paperwork and insurance worries, and endless phone calls. It is just patient contact.”

Similarities

As an administrator, Donna Denniston was struck by the similarities, rather than the differences, between her experiences  and those of her Buduburam counterparts. The same, she said, held true for the children, whose dreams and hopes parallel those of RIS students. She was able to spend a fair amount of time with the high school principals in Ghana, noting that “the major differences are that they have so little in terms of materials and resources, and that they are teaching many children who have witnessed unspeakable atrocities.”

The children at CAME school treasure the few school supplies they have, as well as the opportunity to receive an education, said Ms Denniston. “We have given our children [in Newtown] so much that, of course, they take it for granted,” she said. But through the pen pal and eye-to-eye project, she has observed that RIS students are learning to be more appreciative.

The trip was not without its hardships. The heat was oppressive and a damaged plane engine grounded the flight home for more than 30 hours in Mali, but what Ms Denniston recalls as her most difficult day was one in the middle of the week.

“I was starting to get very connected to the students I was in charge of teaching. We had begun to examine the writing that we were getting from the children, and from these children I was starting to know and care about, I read of their hopes, dreams, joys, and sorrows. I read about their hunger and despair…. Before this trip, the news from these countries and many other places was backdrop in my life… To know the real people involved in those events, and to know that I can make a difference in their daily existence, however small, is a completely different perspective,” she said.

Documentaries are a passion for video tech teacher Maryann Snieckus and it was purely happenstance that she became affiliated with the RIS eye-to-eye project. Hoping to teach documentary video to her NHS students, she stopped by the Board of Education one August day in 2007 where Karen King and Jennifer Staple of Unite for Sight were meeting. One thing led to another and Ms Snieckus found her video class that fall filming the distribution of pen pal letters to Ms King’s former students, now students at Newtown Middle School. “That was the first I had heard of Karen and Jennifer’s trips to Ghana. I love when people step outside the box,” said Ms Snieckus.

Over Christmas break, Ms Snieckus was hoping for her own chance to step outside the box when her phone rang. “Karen wanted to know if I would come to Africa with them in February.” She did not say yes or no right away to the request, worried a bit about the expense. Then came a second call: Ms King had received complementary tickets from North American Airlines.

“The eye-to-eye program really appealed to the documentary nature in me, and I knew I would be teaching photography, so I went,” she said of the February trip to Ghana. She shot 26 hours of video while there. She also brought with her to CAME school the video of the NMS students receiving the letters from the CAME students, and a teaching video about photography.

The April trip offered Ms Snieckus more of an opportunity to interact directly with the children at CAME. “I had the high school aged kids, and worked with them on the celebration of the little moments, putting together the writing and the photography, and that is what photography is all about — the little moments. Getting a camera was a big deal for the kids at Buduburam and getting the photographs back in the albums was a big deal to them. They are leaving the camp soon, and now they have a record of a part of their lives,” said Ms Snieckus.

She felt the impact of the pen pal and eye-to-eye programs especially so when one of the CAME teachers approached her in April and said, “You don’t know how important it is to see you, how much hope you are giving us. We have to leave here and you are following us and giving us hope.”

“I think that this affected a lot of people on both sides of the ocean. I felt we were carrying a message: That they were not forgotten,” Ms Snieckus said.

The CAME School will be closing in August, ending the pen pal relationship established between Newtown students and the students in Ghana. “The people of Buduburam, and the families of the Carolyn A. Miller School community will be resettled in Liberia within the next year,” said Ms King. “Many of these refugees are returning to a country whose civil war traumatized them just a few short years ago. Old villages, neighborhoods, and homes are gone. There are few jobs, and most refugees have no money with which to begin rebuilding their lives,” she said.

However, the director of the CAME School believes that the school community can provide an anchor for the families. Karrus Hayes is working with the organization Engineers Without Borders to finalize plans to rebuild the school in Liberia in Bong County. Temporarily, he hopes to open the school in Monrovia in September. While the equipment and supplies owned by the school are minimal, there is a need to transport what they do have to Monrovia.

“The UN is allowing each returning refugee to carry only 50 pounds of belongings,” said Ms King.

This is where, once again, she is appealing to the generosity of the RIS and Newtown communities to offer their support. “Our goal is to rent a large truck for the school that will carry the school supplies and the personal belongings of the teachers so that the temporary school location in Monrovia can be up and running in time for the fall semester,” Ms King said. She is also hopeful that funds can be raised to help build the new school in Bong County, Liberia.

A special photo gallery/poetry reading/musical concert to celebrate this international friendship and collaboration, and to raise money to rent the truck and support the rebuilding of CAME School, will be held at Reed Intermediate School, Wednesday evening, June 18, from 7 to 9 pm. (See accompanying article.)

“It will cost a great deal to build the new school in Bong County, but it will provide jobs, education and continuity, and a sense of the future to the students and their families. In a very real way,” said Ms King, “it will promote stability and hope for a country that needs a helping hand to make the dream of peace a reality.”