The students in Centre Wellington District High School’s (CWDHS) social justice class are putting lessons into action and doing their part for global issues such as basic human rights, violence against women, slavery and poverty.
Camille Slack, Ben Dolman and Avery Thornton are three of the students assigned to the class project on the issue of poverty.
On Oct. 17, the United Nation’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the group took to the CWDHS cafeteria to encourage their fellow students to sign a petition to encourage awareness and action at all levels of government.
“Centre Wellington is a wealthy community where we still have people who are in poverty and using the food bank. That shouldn’t be happening,” said Slack.
“Our goal is to raise awareness within the school, and to make our voices heard on the provincial, national and global level.”
To do that, the students began a letter writing campaign.
“We have written letters to MP Ted Arnott, MPP Michael Chong and Valerie Amos, the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief coordinator,” said Slack.
“We will be collecting signatures from other students … to show their support of the poverty relief efforts in place and to encourage the growth of more.”
She added, “The letters explain that we support what they have done [on this issue] so far, but we want to encourage them to do more.”
Teachers Jim Mason and Diane Ballantyne created the class project as a way to encourage student activism.
“The biggest part of the process is them understanding the issues … and getting them to communicate that with their peers,” said Ballantyne.
“But the greater challenge is to understand that the issue [of poverty] is difficult and complicated.”
For the teachers, encouraging the students to look at all levels of government and finding a way to reach out to them, by including their peers, was an important aspect of the project.
“People seem really receptive,” Slack said of her fellow students.
Continuing in this theme, future projects will include the United Nations General Assembly designation of Nov. 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women; International Day for the Abolition of Slavery on Dec. 2; and Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.
For more information on these issues visit www.un.org.
