Junior Primary Cover 9/1/07 11:12 AM Page 1 MALAWI Equal Rights for All Trócaire Lenten Campaign 2007 Primary School Teachers’ Resource Junior Infants to Second Class/ Primary 1 to Primary 3 Inside: The story of Lucia from Malawi Classroom activities and worksheets Poster and artwork Prayers for Lent Trócaire Better World Award R9263 Junior Primary 9/1/07 11:18 AM Page 2 Contents Page 3 Trócaire Better World Award Page 4 Teacher’s Notes Page 5 Lucia’s Story Page 6 Picture Worksheet Page 7 Introductory Activities Page 8 AFolktale from Malawi Pages 9 & 10 Activities for Junior and Senior Infants/P1 & P2 Pages 11 & 12 Activities for 1st & 2nd class /P3 Page 13 Worksheet for Junior Infants to 2nd class/P1 to P3 Page 14 Worksheet for 1st & 2nd class / P3 Page 15 Prayer Service Trócaire’s Lenten Campaign 2007 The focus of this year’s Lenten theme is Equal Rights for All and the country profiled is Malawi. Gender equality is about men and women, together, realising their human rights. Our Lenten booklets for Pre-school, Junior Primary and Senior Primary all look at the lives of people in Malawi. In this booklet for Junior Infants to Second Class / Primary 1 to 3 we profile Lucia and her cousin Johan. Lucia lives with her aunt Rose who is 19. Both Lucia and her aunt Rose are orphans whose parents died from HIV/AIDS.They now live in an orphan support community.The materials contain background information for the teacher on Malawi and gender, and on Trócaire’s work. Also included are a Prayer Service, children’s worksheets and posters. This year we are again including the Trócaire Better World Award.This award is in recognition of the time and energy teachers and children put into exploring the Lenten theme. Every child who participates receives a certificate and there are awards for groups whose entries are of special merit. As the children carry out the activities, we invite teachers to encourage them in groups or as a whole class, to enter their work on this year’s theme. TBWA Throughout the booklet this graphic will highlight for you ideas for entries. See page 3 for details. Where a number of teachers are using this resource in school, additional copies are available from Trócaire free of charge as well as versions as Gaeilge. Order Form I would like _________ extra copies of the Primary Lenten Resource for infants to 2nd class (P1 to P3) Ba mhaith liom _________ cóipeanna den leabhar Ranganna Naionan go Rang 2ú / P1 go P3 Name: ____________________________________________________________________________ School Address: ____________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________ Email address: ________________________________ Tel No. _____________________________ Please send to Trócaire, 9 Cook Street, Cork or to Trócaire, 50 King St. Belfast BT1 6AD 2 Lenten Campaign 2007 R9263 Junior Primary 9/1/07 11:18 AM Page 3 TRÓCAIRE Better World Award As you work through the activities with your class, don’t forget to enter their work for the Trócaire Better World Award. This is a non-competitive award which recognises the work that children and teachers put into exploring the themes each year. It is also a way to encourage children to work together collaboratively as submissions must be a group or whole class effort. What to do: As the children undertake the activities, keep their work or record their activities for submitting to the Trócaire Better World Award.To help keep track of progress, ask children to fill in the Trócaire Better World Award poster which accompanies this pack. Here are some ideas for your entry: Scrapbook:Ask the children to carry out written work on sheets of paper which can be displayed in the classroom and later compiled into a scrapbook e.g. letters to Lucia, competed worksheets. The TBWA also highlights ideas for entries. Video:record the children carrying out role-plays, doing art and craft work, talking about what they have learnt. Artwork:Send in artwork, construction or posters the children have designed.* Photos: take photos of the children’s work or the children working on activities or playing the games. Photograph displays.* * Please note:It is not necessary to send in displays or all of the artwork – some may be too large or too cumbersome to send by post. Simply photograph the work and send with your entry. Photographs and video recording of children requires parental permission What schools will receive: Members of each group who submit an entry will receive a Trócaire Better World Award Certificate and a Trócaire Better World Award sticker. In addition there will be awards for groups whose entries are of special merit.These include: •A batik, depicting women at work, for the school • Laminated Peter’s Projection wall map •Books or music CD for the classroom with a global theme Trócaire Better World Award Entry Form School’s Name: ______________________________________ Class: __________________________________________ Names of children involved: ______________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Give a brief description of your entry: ______________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Teacher’s Name:________________________________________________________________________________________ School Address: ________________________________________________________________________________________ Email:______________________________________________ Telephone: ______________________________________ Send your class or group entry to Trócaire, 9 Cook Street, Cork or Trócaire, 50 King Street, Belfast, BT1 6AD by Friday April 27th 2007 Mark your envelope Trócaire Better World Award Lenten Campaign 2007 3 R9263 Junior Primary 9/1/07 11:18 AM Page 4 Background notes for the teacher Malawi is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is one of the poorest countries in Africa and has been devastated by poverty, famine and AIDS. 90% of the population are farmers who try to feed their families on tiny plots of land. In a normal year, millions struggle to get enough to eat. Climatic extremes of droughts and floods resulting in poor harvests have meant that many families are reduced to eating one meal a day, usually a plate of nsima -a starchy food made of maize flour and water.The country is in need of food aid every year. Most people are locked in a cycle of hunger that leads to other problems. After a poor harvest many men leave the family to go to find work elsewhere and women are often forced to turn to prostitution to survive.This movement of people increases the spread of AIDs.When harvest time comes around, people are so desperate they can’t afford to put any seeds aside to plant the following year and the cycle of hunger starts again. In 2005, Malawi experienced the worst harvest in a decade. 40% of the population were in need of emergency food aid. It will take years to recover. It is estimated that 14% of the population are infected with HIV/AIDS.Younger women are particularly affected. Four times as many women as men in the 15 to 19 years age group are affected by AIDS.This reflects cultural practices of older men marrying young girls and also the widespread abuse of young women in schools and elsewhere.The problems of AIDS, poverty and famine are interlinked. Many family providers are either too ill to work, or are taking care of family members. Half a million children have been orphaned.There is a shortage of medical staff due to migration, a lack of education and also because of AIDS. Malawi has just one doctor per 100,000 people. A national programme to tackle the problem was launched in 2004 and there is evidence that this is having some positive effects, with the prevalence dropping slightly in urban areas. Many children, particularly girls, are withdrawn from school to look after sick relatives, to carry out household chores or to earn an income.Three times as many girls as boys have no formal education and only 30% of girls and 40% of boys go to primary school.The Millennium Development Goals as agreed by the world’s leaders in 2000, recognise both education and gender disparities as being key to addressing poverty in Malawi and at global level. (Sources: UNICEF and UNDP) Brief history of Malawi Malawi gained independence from Britain in 1964. For 30 years the country was ruled by a totalitarian president, Kamuzu Banda.The people suffered human rights abuses and repression under his rule. International and domestic pressure led to the first multi-party elections in 1994. Bakili Muluzi was elected president, and there were accusations of widespread corruption during his time in office. President Bingu Wa Mutharika took office in 2004, vowing to take a zero-tolerance approach to corruption.These difficulties seem to have been reduced and international support for Malawi has increased. What Trócaire is doing The empowerment of women and the elimination of gender inequalities is a distinct focus for Trócaire’s work in the developing world. Gender-based