Unity Foundation organized a series of workshops at Fieldgen Private School every Wednesday afternoon in November and December 2023, as part of the school’s sustainable development option.

Before the first session, we sent a questionnaire to the participants to get to know them: their talents, qualities, hobbies, their questions about the world, and what they would like to improve in their school and environment.

During the first session, we began with interactive games to get to know the students in a less academic atmosphere, while strengthening their mutual bonds. We also presented the overall results of the students’ responses to the questionnaire, as well as the program for the workshops, which were chosen according to their talents and questions. 

At the end of the series of workshops, participants wrote kind words to each other as a souvenir of the time spent together.

Over the next two sessions, the students watched the film Bigger than Us directed by Flore Vasseur, in which Indonesian activist Melati Wijsen travels the world to meet six young activists involved in various fields. We looked at the lives and projects of the young activists in the film, focusing on a number of questions: what are their goals, who supports them, how do they help their communities, what role does their culture play in their projects, etc.?

João, one of the students in the class, commented on how the film and the workshop had shown him that young people often underestimate their ability to create change in the world but that, despite their age, they can contribute to the progress of society through perseverance and altruism. 

Drawing of the story of Mohammed, one of the activists featured in the film Bigger than Us.

The students were then invited to use their talents to represent the themes of the film in small groups and in a variety of art forms: mime, writing, drama and drawing. In particular, the students reflected on the compassion to be shown to refugees and a poem was written by the writing and singing group; another group also wrote a poem to summarise the important elements in managing a project.

In the waves of the blue ocean, 

Travelling without land, without home,

Carrying hope far from safe lands. 

Sailing towards a future, a new life.

Beyond borders, they seek refuge and peace,

Let us empathise with them, offer them our support,

Let us build bridges, not walls, to welcome them,

Offering them hope for a future yet to be written.

Let us open our hearts and stretch out our hands, 

United in solidarity, a song of humanity,

Let us support them, for a better world.

Poem “The recipe for cooking up a perfect project”.

Enthused by the film and having made a link with their everyday lives, the students then created projects in groups of 4 or 5 after identifying together the challenges they faced at school.

Of the five groups, one decided to talk to the homeless, in particular to a woman who was begging in the vicinity of the school. After thinking carefully about the role of empathy and trust in human relationships and preparing for the encounter, they went to see her. The conversation they had with her challenged certain common prejudices about homeless people and taught them that it is essential to have empathy for each person, especially when you don’t know their story.

Another group chose to tackle the problem of smoking. In their school, the entrance area is often occupied by smokers. This choice has several negative consequences, which the group identified: firstly, every pupil is forced to be a passive smoker when they cross the entrance; secondly, this influences the younger students who look at the older students who smoke and think that it’s normal to smoke when you’re older. The group therefore decided to suggest to the school management that they give the students who smoke a quiz to find out why they smoke. Is it stress? Is it seeing others around you doing it? They also thought of proposing the creation of a smoking area to free up the entrance to the school.

Testimonial of a student who was in the group concerned with smoking.

We finished the series of workshops with presentations by each group to the class and an activity to write kind words to each other as souvenirs of the time spent together.

We would like to thank the Fieldgen high school for allowing us to run this series of workshops, and we look forward to being back soon!