ANSON — Nine-year-old Skye Welch, of North Anson, has never been to the African country of Cameroon. But through technology, she is connecting this year with Cameroonian students her age.
Welch and her 21 classmates in Amanda Pingree’s fourth grade class at Carrabec Community School will also use their partnership to provide items like shoes and computers to the Mission School of Hope in Mbang village.
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“We’re not just doing this just so we can see what it’s like there. We’re actually doing this to show we care,” Welch said on Friday.
The cross-cultural exchange effort started after Education Technician III Julie Edes heard the Rev. Charles Sagay, the coordinator of the Cameroonian school, speak at the First Congregational Church in North Anson. Sagay funds the school’s operations with donations from churches across the U.S.
Edes introduced Sagay to the student council about five years ago, and this is the first year a class will start communicating directly with students in Cameroon.
A Fast Track grant from the Perloff Family Foundation paid for a laptop and generator for the Cameroon school, which previously had no electricity, said Jaime Steward, the district’s technology integrator. Soon, students plan to use the computer software Skype to video chat over the Internet with fourth graders in Cameroon.
Pingree said she wants her students to learn “an appreciation for the experiences they have” and “hopefully get an understanding of a place beyond their backyard.”
The class plans to send over a camera and a toy stuffed moose, Steward said. The Cameroonian children will then take pictures of their surroundings with the moose in them and email them back to Anson. They will also write journal entries to share.
Fourth grader Jacob Copeland, 9, of Embden, said he’s interested to learn more about the different culture. “I really just want to know what they do to survive in small villages like that and what they do every day for fun,” he said.
Annika Carey, 10, of Embden, said she also wants to tell the Baka ethnic group about her life. “I want them to learn what we do after school,” she said.
The class has decided to donate nice shoes to Cameroon students as a Christmas gift and is accepting donations through November. “The hurdle right now is getting them there in time for Christmas,” Steward said.
Steward said she is also aiming to collect 10 laptop computers to present to the school. She hopes they will use the technology as an educational tool, perhaps to learn more about ways to combat the destruction of their rainforest. The Anson class will also study deforestation.
“I think we’re finding we’re learning more from them than they are from us,” Steward said. She is keeping a blog of the collaboration at ansontoafrica.posterous.com.
Erin Rhoda — 612-2368
erhoda@centralmaine.com
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