Anti-Poverty Week 2004 October 17-22
By Lynn Takayama
Federation encourages schools to engage in activities during Anti-Poverty Week which will remind people there are millions of people around the world, including in Australia, living in poverty and hardship.
The union is a member of the National Coalition Against Poverty (NCAP) which has this year been focussing on education and poverty as the key theme.
Teachers know that poverty and hardship set up barriers to education at all levels. A vicious circle is created: access to and utilisation of education is more difficult when someone is suffering from poverty and hardship, but without education breaking the cycle of poverty and hardship is much more difficult.
Federation is aware that there are many schools and their teachers who already, on a practical level, engage in different programs to assist students who suffer from poverty and hardship. This is wonderful, and often unacknowledged, work that not only benefits the individual students involved but assists their families and ultimately benefits the broader community.
Federation encourages members, during Anti-Poverty Week, to highlight to their communities the anti-poverty activities they already undertake. The union encourages schools who do not already engage in anti-poverty activities to do so during Anti-Poverty Week.
The following suggestions for further activities might be useful:
- hold a breakfast in the school and invite politicians to advertise the school's work in combating poverty and hardship amongst its students;
- arrange contact between schools and community organisations which work in this area to increase familiarity with these organisations' work and the needs they seek to ameliorate;
- do an "equity audit" -- identify those activities which can exclude students who are experiencing poverty or hardship, or which serve as barriers to full participation in the whole education experience for those experiencing poverty or hardship;
- structure a lesson to specifically explore different elements (causes and consequences) of poverty. (If you type "poverty lesson plans" into a search engine the internet can provide good ideas).
These are simply suggestions. Whatever activities that can be held or organised within a school to draw attention to the poverty and hardship that many of our students and many children around the world are forced to endure would be useful.
Lynn Takayama is a Relieving Organiser.
For further information
September 2004 contents
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