Kids Helping Kids

Soon after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast states, destroying the homes and possessions of almost one million Americans and forcing many students to evacuate from their familiar surroundings, the Fulbright English teachers, local English teachers, and school administrators developed a program to reach out to young students affected by the storm. In this program called Kids Helping Kids, a school in I-Lan County will partner with a school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to empathize with and encourage the students who have been evacuated from their homes in New Orleans, which experienced the most severe damage and flooding. Like the Gulf Coast, Taiwan is also frequently affected by typhoons, and the children here can identify with the difficulties facing the children devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

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The purpose of this program is two-fold. The first purpose of this program is to support students who have lost their homes, clothing, and toys by writing letters and possibly including a small gift of encouragement, demonstrating the kindness of Taiwanese students. The second purpose of this program is to promote mutual understanding and greater intercultural knowledge between the children of Taiwan and of the United States by establishing a potentially long-lasting friendship between the schools that are partnered together. Through this friendship, the schools may send letters, emails, video, pictures, etc. to each other to develop a greater understanding of one another’s cultures.

This program will initially be implemented by the twelve schools in I-Lan County who are working in conjunction with the United States Fulbright Program, which aims to increase mutual understanding between the United States and other countries. After being assigned to a school in Baton Rouge, the Fulbright or lead teacher will work with his or her school to coordinate this project, deciding how the project will be presented, the exact timetable, and what it will include (letters, pictures, gifts, etc.). The lead teacher will then write a letter of introduction explaining the project to his or her assigned school and extending an invitation to become a sister school.

The overall goal of the project is meant to not only help kids help other kids through a picture or gift of encouragement in the immediate future, but also to help kids learn about, share and appreciate their differences and similarities over an extended period of time.

This program is open to all schools in I-Lan County. If other schools wish to become involved, they may contact Julianna Scheumann at juliannascheumann@yahoo.com for further information.

Further information

Fulbright http://www.fulbrightonline.org/

The Times-Picayune (New Orleans newspaper) http://www.nola.com/

The American Red Cross http://www.redcross.org/