A Long Walk to Global Citizenship part 1

written by 10122 Jung Minji, 10318 Oh Su-a,

20224 Jun Min Ah, 20514 Oh Juyeon, 20801 Kim Gawoon

 

This is a three part series of the global project that was launched in August 2020. This global project was launched about the book every Sawlian learned during class time, A Long Walk to Water. Since all Sawlians had read it, anyone could join the project. Students could organize their team to three people maximum. The participants had to submit their work until August 30, 12 p.m. by sending an email to Jeon Yeji teacher and Kang Jiyoung teacher.

 

What Types of Project?

Students could choose to do one of the two different categories for the project. One category was to write a report. The other was free-creation.

In the report category, the participants had to create a report in Korean about what they did during summer vacation. They had to carry out the schedule they planned. The purpose of the schedule was to solve the main characters’ problems, such as a lack of water and the Sudanese Civil War.

 The participants could make any style they wished in the free-creation category, such as a poster, brochure, cartoon, or fairy tale book. They had to create the project in one of the languages (English, Russian, Japanese, French, or Chinese) taught at SAWL.

 

Background to Deeply Think About

The global project engages students with the material from A Long Walk to Water. South Sudanese Civil War is the background of Linda Sue Park’s novel. In the novel, there are the stories of Salva from 1985 and Nya from 2008.

Salva is a boy from the tribe Dinka and had suffered from the war, becoming a refugee. He had lost his family and seen a lot of deaths, including his friend and uncle. He walked such a long journey for a little boy with loneliness. Nya is not in a situation of war, but she was suffering from scarce water and medical problems. Thus, both Salva and Nya are affected by the war, even though their stories are set in different decades.

 

Discriminated in Sudan

With their stories, Linda Sue Park lets the readers know about the discriminations and disadvantages of being male, female, and children during those times in Sudan. There appears a kind of duty with two genders, male and female.

Men were drafted for military service in severe wartime without their opinion or consent. Furthermore, lots of people have to lose their life due to wars of religion and tribes.

Nya had to walk again and again because fetching water and wood is a job for women. Also, the housework and taking care of children were described as women’s jobs, too. They could not experience formal education because of their gender. Like these, the author described Sudan’s unfair and meaningless fight and sad sacrifices.

The stories of two young people teach issues about wars, a lack of water, medical aid, famine, refugees are not something people can honestly know about. We need to take action to solve those problems as global citizens. By exploring the issues in the classroom, Sawlians had made practical and meaningful processes for their unique projects during the 2020 summer vacation, based on these global issues.