Teacher Resources

ChildFund Teaching Resources

Looking for fun ways of helping children and young people learn and make a difference for other children?

We've got the classroom resources, activities, opportunities and support you're looking for.

Our educational resources help children and young people learn about what it means to be a global citizen. They'll be inspired to:

  • think about our connections with others
  • question inequalities
  • take responsibility and action
  • consider their impact on the global situation

You can search our resources to find activities based on many different issues facing children living in poverty, including: education, health, nutrition, livelihoods and futures.

Topics – Learn, discuss and act

Workshop – The Global Education Game

This whole class interactive game will show, through a series of scenarios, what difference having an education makes. What effect does it have on the decisions you are able to make for you, your family and community? What are the short and long term effects? For your free workshop and materials, contact us today.

ChildFund Country Focus

Zambia – find out how much you know by taking the Zambia quiz! Then use the links to find out more about Zambia, and what ChildFund is doing in the area to improve conditions for children and whole communities.

School Fundraising Ideas!

Now you have learned about the issues, it's time to take action to help your fellow students, teachers and schools living in some of the most difficult conditions in the world. 

How? Check our fun-tastic Fundraising Ideas Pack!

Topics – Learn, discuss and act - Education

Fast Facts

  • Of 680 million primary school age children, 115 million do not attend school.
  • Three-fifths of out-of-school children are girls.1
  • Half of those who start primary school finish it – but in sub-Saharan Africa, two out of three do not.1
  • One-fourth of adults in the developing world – and 879 million people world wide cannot read or write.1
  • One year of additional education increases individual output by 4-7%.2
  • More than 46 million children are not in school in Africa. They represent more than 40% of the world’s out-of-school children.1
  • To achieve universal primary education in Africa by 2015, nearly 80 million new places in schools need to be created to accommodate all children.2
  • Girls in Africa are at a disadvantage – more than 24 million of them are not in school.3
  • One person in three is of primary or secondary school age in Africa, compared with one in five in Latin America, and one in six in the United States.5
  • Africa has a debt burden of $230 billion – the continent spends $14.5 billion each year servicing debt. Many countries spend more on debt repayment than on education.6 7
  • Civil conflict is common in many developing countries. Conflict greatly diminishes access to education, damages school facilities, and diverts vital resources from schools to military or security purposes.8
  • HIV/AIDS creates teacher shortages – an estimated 860, 000 children in sub-Saharan Africa lost teachers to AIDS in 1999. For every teacher who dies, an entire classroom is left without instruction.9
  • HIV/AIDS also forces students to leave school. As parents fall ill and die, adult responsibilities shift to children – particularly girls. In one South African province where adult HIV prevalence exceeds 30%, first grade enrolment dropped 24% in 2000.10

Source:

  1. UNDP. 2003. Human Development Report 2003.
  2. OECD. 2001. The Well-Being of Nations: The Role of Human and Social Capital. OECD.
  3. Education for All: Is the World on Track? 2002. EFA Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO
  4. www.developmentgoals.org
  5. Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Report 2001. UNESCO Institute for Statistics
  6. www.50years.org
  7. www.datadata.org
  8. “Education in Situations of Crisis” 2001. World Education Forum, UNESCA EFA assessment
  9. Education and HIV AIDS: A Window of Hope 2002. The World Bank
  10. “Facing the HIV/AIDS Pandemic” 2002. Population Reference Bureau

Impacts of education on children and their communities

  • Education can help in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Its gives children knowledge and life skills to protect themselves from infection.
  • Basic education combats child labour. A child who does not attend school is a child who, inevitable, will be put to work.
  • Countries with higher levels of education have greater political stability and stronger democratic rights. 5
  • The children of educated mothers are more likely to succeed in school and send their own children to school, creating a virtuous cycle benefiting future generations.

Source:

  1. UNESCO. 2002 HIV/AIDS and Education: A Strategic Approach.
  2. UNESCO. 2002. Three questions about the need to abolish child Labour” Education Today: The Newsletter of UNESCO’s Education Sector.
  3. Academy for Educational Development 9AED). “Facts about Basic Education in Developing Countries”

Why is education so important?

Education determines the prospects of people and countries. Evidence is compelling, that while not sufficient by itself education is a prerequisite for economic development, individual health and well-being, democracy, and poverty alleviation. Basic education, which includes early childhood development through early secondary school, is considered an antidote to the spread of both HIV/AIDS and abusive child labour. Studies link education to higher agricultural productivity, longer life expectancy rates, lower infant mortality rates, and greater political stability and tolerance. Education empowers people and gives them a stake in society.

Basic education is not a luxury to be addressed once a government gets the rest of its house in order. Evidence shows that it is a precursor for all factors of development: economic growth, poverty reduction, health, and environmental sustainability. It fosters tolerance and understanding. It is linked to better governance and stability. And education nurtures human capacity, across generations.

Examples of ChildFund’s Educational Efforts

  • Boarding schools for Maasai girls to encourage education instead of early marriage in Kenya.
  • Literacy courses for out-of-school youth and adults.
  • Formal and non-formal Education.
  • After-school tutorial and mentoring assistance to children and youth.
  • Building schools, classrooms and skills training centres for youth with no access to primary or post-primary education.
  • Peace-building schools and educational programmes in conflict or post-conflict areas.
  • Establishing Child Centred Spaces in areas affected by war or natural disaster.
  • Providing Accelerated Primary Education for ex-combatants and children/youth affected by war.
  • Skills training to help youth prepare for entry-level jobs in computers, carpentry, tailoring, secretarial, auto mechanics, and other job fields.
  • Direct assistance to children in need through high school scholarships and provision of school supplies and school fees.
  • Promoting youth leadership and participation in community transformation processes.
  • Teacher training

Related ChildFund Articles

  1. Read ChildFund article ‘Back to School Basics for Children in need’
  2. For more information on how losing a parent to HIV/AIDS affects children please read ChildFund article ‘When there is no time to give’

Useful Links

  1. For more information on education, visit: http://www.millenniumcampaign.org/site/pp.asp?c=grKVL2NLE&b=185519
  2. To understand global views on how to achieve universal education please visit Millennium Development Goals: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

Classroom Activities

Essay and class discussion

Read the following statement. Write an essay, and then come back to the rest of the class to discuss and debate your ideas. ‘Education is key to breaking the cycle of poverty for young people worldwide. In what ways will education help young people change their lives and provide opportunities for their future?’

Topic - Hunger & Malnutrition

Fast Facts

  • 852 million people do not have enough to eat everyday- more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union
  • Hunger & malnutrition are the number one risk to global health killing more people than AIDS, malaria & TB combined Every five seconds a child dies because she or he is hungry
  • Hunger is inherited. Each year, 17 million children are born underweight because their mothers are malnourished
  • For 19 cents you can feed a hungry child in school for a day Source: WFP School Feeding Global Report, 2003
  • Child death rates are eight times higher in Africa than Europe. Malnutrition is the main cause
  • 10.9 million children under five die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths
  • Six million children under five die every year from malnutrition and hunger-related diseases. There are 6.2 million under fives in France and Italy

Source:

  1. UNICEF State of the World's Children 2003, Table 5, p101
  2. FAO & The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2003 Source: WHO-World Health Report 2002 - WHO 2003
  3. FAO State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003
  4. WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2
  5. The Lancet (Jan 2003); in Nutrition Update Handout, Oct 2003, Siena - Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p1
  6. UNICEF

How does malnutrition affect a child?

  • An estimated 167 million children under five years of age in the world are underweight - the result of acute or chronic hunger. This means that 20 percent of all hungry people are children aged less than five.
  • Chronic hunger also delays or stops the physical and mental growth of children. Poor or insufficient nutrition over time means some 226 million children are too small for their age. Most tragically, diseases such as measles or dysentery can kill undernourished children more easily.
  • According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations), every year that hunger continues at present levels costs five million children their lives.
  • Today, one in nearly seven people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life, making hunger and malnutrition the number one risk to health worldwide -- greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
  • Millions of people live on significantly less than the recommended 2,100 calories that the average person needs to lead a healthy life.

What happens to the body?

The body compensates for the lack of energy by slowing down its physical and mental activities. A hungry mind cannot concentrate, a hungry body does not take initiative, a hungry child loses all desire to play and study.

Hunger also weakens the immune system. Deprived of the right nutrition, hungry children are especially vulnerable and become too weak to fight off disease and may die from common infections like measles and diarrhea. Each year, malnutrition contributes to the deaths of an estimated 10 million under-fives.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) 2004 Food Insecurity Report, vitamin and mineral deficiencies afflict nearly two billion people worldwide. Deficiencies of iron, vitamin A and zinc are ranked among the World Health Organization's (WHO) top 10 leading causes of death through disease in developing countries:

Iron deficiency is the most prevalent form of malnutrition worldwide, affecting an estimated 1.7 billion people, half of whom suffer from anaemia.

  • Iron forms the molecules that carry oxygen in the blood, so symptoms of a deficiency include tiredness and lethargy. Lack of iron in large segments of the population severely damages a country's productivity. Iron deficiency also impedes cognitive development, affecting 40-60 percent of children in developing countries.
  • Iron deficiency is the most common form of malnutrition, affecting 180 million children aged under four Source: WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2
  • Iron deficiency is impairing the mental development of 40-60 percent of children in developing countries Source: Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, p2, UNICEF

Vitamin A deficiency weakens the immune systems of a large proportion of under-fives in poor countries, increasing their vulnerability to disease. A deficiency in vitamin A, for example, increases the risk of dying from diarrhoea, measles and malaria by 20-24 percent.

  • Affecting 140 million preschool children in 118 countries and more than seven million pregnant women, it is also a leading cause of child blindness across developing countries.
  • Lack of vitamin A weakens the immune system of 40 percent of under fives in poor countries, and can cause blindness Source: Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency, A Global Progress Report, p2, UNICEF - WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2

Iodine deficiency affects 780 million people worldwide. The clearest symptom is a swelling of the thyroid gland called goitre. But the most serious impact is on the brain, which cannot develop properly without iodine.

  • According to UN research, some 20 million children are born mentally impaired because their mothers did not consume enough iodine. The worst-hit suffer cretinism, associated with severe mental retardation and physical stunting.
  • Iodine deficiency is the main cause of brain damage in the early years of a child's life
    Source: WFP Facts and Figures on Child Hunger, p2

Zinc deficiency contributes to growth failure and weakened immunity in young children. It is linked to a higher risk of diarrhoea and pneumonia, resulting in some 800,000 deaths per year.

Case Study: The story of Dorca

Recovery from malnutrition takes a long time. When ChildFund met 3-year-old Dorca last year in Kenya, she was suffering from third degree malnutrition, the most severe stage. Since she began participating in our emergency response feeding programme, her malnutrition has decreased to second degree. When we met her, she could neither stand nor walk on her own. Now, she can do both with ease.

But second degree malnutrition also means that Dorca has a long way to go. On most days, you’ll see her in the company of other children at the Kandebene Early Childhood Centre, where children converge to receive a high-protein porridge made from soy, maize, millet, wheat and water, provided by ChildFund. She also attends clinics at the Isiolo District Hospital regularly.

In October 2005, Dorca became severely malnourished after suffering months of drought. The ChildFund programme in Isiolo, Kenya identified her as a child who needed close attention through therapeutic and supplementary feeding. ChildFund worked closely with the Isiolo district hospital, which offered medical treatment and advice while ensuring that she had access to the emergency feeding programme.

Now, ChildFund also assists Dorca’s family by providing food rations of beans, maize, skimmed milk and locally prepared corn soya blend flour for Dorca and her younger sister Angelina on a monthly basis. ChildFund provides Dorca with clothing and assists her mother and grandmother with parental care and guidance. Her family is also being assisted to look at an alternative livelihood, instead of solely relying on crop production and animal husbandry. By working with Dorca and her family, ChildFund through child sponsorship has been able to make a real long term difference to this child in need.

The images below show Dorca before and after ChildFund intervention.

Related ChildFund Articles

For more information read ChildFund’s article:
‘When food is not a pleasure but a necessity for life’

Useful Links

For more information on hunger, go to: www.wfp.org/aboutwfp/introduction/hunger_what.asp?section=1&sub_section=1

For more information on malnutrition, go to:
www.childinfo.org/areas/malnutrition/

Classroom Activity

Case Study discussion

  1. What does being malnourished mean?
  2. What did that mean to Dorca?
  3. Why did ChildFund decide to help Dorca?
  4. How did she recover?
  5. What do these words mean – Therapeutic and supplementary feeding? Alternative livelihood? Animal husbandry?

Essay and class discussion

Read the following statement. Write an essay, and then come back to the rest of the class to discuss and debate your ideas.

’Food and clean water provide nourishment to ensure our bodies function properly. What is the impact on a malnourished child and their daily life? How do you think being malnourished would affect your daily life?’

Topic: Futures

Helping communities help themselves

Self sufficiency within communities is integral to every programme that ChildFund works in. Micro Enterprise Development Programmes are one way that ChildFund helps to promote independence and self sufficiency. They can help poor families to become financially secure and make a lasting and meaningful change to their lives.

The most common Micro Enterprise activities include;

  • Providing low interest loans so families can start small businesses.
  • Helping people become job-ready through business and on-the-job training.
  • Training individuals and families in small business ventures that generate income.

Micro Enterprise activities play an important role in providing a long-term solution to poverty alleviation by teaching families how to help themselves.

When poor parents develop an income-generating activity or participate in a vocational training or business management course, they are better able to create a financial safety net for their families, thus reducing the need for ongoing support from an outside organization such as ChildFund.

As families and communities build and accumulate assets—marketable skills, economic resources, community infrastructure—they become financially independent.

This independence allows ChildFund to move on to other communities in need; equally important is the pride parents feel when they can support their own children.

 

Useful Links

For more information and some examples of Micro Enterprise Development Programmes:

Classroom Activity

Essay and class discussion

Read the following statement. Write an essay, and then come back to the rest of the class to discuss and debate your ideas.

‘Child Fund aid workers help children and their communities to help themselves. For example, ten chickens will feed a family on a daily basis as well as provide an income from selling their eggs. Discuss why it is important to establish long term programmes to teach children and communities to help themselves.’

Topic – Children in Poverty

Who is responsible?

Consider the following:

  • Individuals
  • families
  • Entire communities
  • Governments of developing countries
  • Governments of developed countries
  • You?

Challenging thinking about responsibility

The Drowning Child Argument

Imagine one day you are walking to school. You pass a pond and see that a small child has fallen in and appears to be drowning. What would you do? You could easily wade in and save the child, but you would get your clothes wet and muddy and would have to go home and change. Would you still save the child? Most people say that, of course they would save the child. The child's life is of more value than the inconvenience caused by your clothes getting muddy. Now, consider that the drowning child is actually a starving child on the other side of the world. What if it only takes $100 to save this child's life? Would you send $100 to save that child's life? What is the difference between the dying child in the pond and a dying child on the other side of the world?

For the full argument see:
http://www.newint.org/issue289/drowning.htm

Useful Links

Websites that debate the causes and solutions to poverty

Classroom Activity

Essay and class discussion

Read the following statements. Write an essay about one, and then come back to the rest of the class to discuss and debate your ideas.

  1. How could New Zealanders support people in need who live in poorer countries through organisations like ChildFund? Should our government provide assistance to people in need who live in poorer countries?
  2. Whose responsibility is it to meet the basic needs of people (water, food, shelter, basic healthcare and education) who cannot provide it for themselves?

Topic – Comparisons to NZ

Could you live on $1 dollar a day?

A total of 1.3 billion people in developing countries live on less than $1 a day. The countries that ChildFund works in are developing countries that lack many of the things New Zealanders take for granted, including jobs, healthcare, education and clean water.

Living on less than $1 dollar a day is a reality for 1.2 billion people world wide, 44 percent reside in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

Useful Links

Take a look at the following web pages describing different experiences of living on less than $1 dollar a day.

Classroom Activity

Discussion

Imagine if you were the bread winner of your family with only $1 dollar a day to survive on.

  • Do you think you would be able to continue to go to school?
  • Do you think you would be able to have 3 meals a day?
  • What would you spend your $1 dollar on? Would most go towards food?
  • What about water or clothes?
  • How do you think your daily routine would change?
  • Would you still see and play with your friends or would you spend time doing domestic chores and cooking?

Essay and class discussion

Read the following statement. Write an essay, and then come back to the rest of the class to discuss and debate your ideas.

’Imagine you live in a developing country where you have less than $1 a day to survive. How would life compare to the one you have now? Think about how your priorities would change and what things would become important to you.’

Zambia Quiz 

 How much do you already know?

  1. Where in the world is Zambia – Northern Africa, North America, Southern Africa or South America?
    - In southern Africa
  2. How many countries border Zambia?
    - Eight countries
  3. Can you name 2 of these countries?
    - Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania or DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo)
  4. What is the official language of Zambia?
    - English, although there are 7 other commonly spoken indigenous languages of Chibemba, Chinyanja, Lunda, Chitonga, Kaonde, Silozi and Luvale
  5. What is the population of Zambia compared to the population of New Zealand? Is it (approximately) three, five or ten times the size of NZ?
    - Three. The population in 2007 was 11,668,000[1] with NZ at 4,228,000.
  6. What is the average life expectancy for the people of Zambia. 21 / 41 / 71?
    - The answer is 41[2]
  7. What country colonised Zambia between 1923 and 1964?
    - Britain
  8. Before Britain, which country controlled Zambia from 1891 to 1923?
    - South Africa
  9. What did Zambia used to be called? (Hint – it’s southern neighbour, Zimbabwe, used to be called Southern Rhodesia)
    - Northern Rhodesia[3].
  10. The largest waterfall in the world is in Zambia, on the Zambezi river. What is the name of those falls?
    - Victoria Falls[4]

How did you score?

 

[1] Wikipedia website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambia

 

[2] National Geographic Website - http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/places/ countries/country_zambia.html

[3] World Atlas website - http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/africa/zm.htm

[4] Wikipedia website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambia

Related ChildFund Articles

To find out more about Zambia and the work ChildFund is doing there, go to:
http://www.childfund.org.nz/news/article.html?article_id=5553198

ChildFund Official Blog

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