PEA RIDGE — Pea Ridge Elementary fifth-graders and University of West Florida students are making an international connection with a Lome, Togo orphange in West Africa.
Dr. Karen Evans, who works in UWF’s Teacher Education and Educational Leadership department, said her students created an international social justice club.
Evans said she first connected with Ayede Agongo, president of the nonprofit organization Hands Open Children, Open Hearts, in Togo. Next, she connected with Deb Weber, a Pea Ridge Elementary fifth-grade teacher. Together with Weber, Evans' students are emailing the Togo orphanage through Agongo.
Evans said the partnership has been "incredible. We're very integrated with what they're doing and what we're doing."
Weber said her fifth-graders have started studying Togo and written letters to children at the orphanage. One UWF student will translate the letters to French, the language of Togo.
Wednesday, students recorded video messages that Evans will send to the orphanage. She said the orphanage asked how Americans celebrate various holidays, so she recorded three videos of Weber's students explaining Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Lani, one of Weber's fifth-graders, said the class is sending care packages that include school supplies among other things. She said she learned Togo is "really hot because it's so close to the equator. They have dirt roads. They have towels for doors and they sleep on the floor. They don't have all that we have for the classroom."
Samantha Cook, a UWF senior working on a dual degree in Elementary and Special Education with a focus on reading, said she and the other students shared roles, taking turns being the class leader.
Cook said her group started with the 17 United Nations goals for sustainable development and let the fifth-graders "select a goal most beneficial to their community."
They chose "no poverty,” she said. Other goals included affordable and clean energy, reduced inequalities, clean water and sanitation, and decent work and economic growth.
Weber's students, led by UWF student Jacob Floyd, took turns suggesting which toys to send. Jump ropes led the vote. When one student suggested a teddy bear, Weber said that might not be possible.
She said the next thing the students will learn is what is acceptable to send to another country.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Pea Ridge, UWF students connect with African orphanage