Jun 27 /
Michigan Exchange Students Help Local Elementary Schools Raise Pennies for Peace

by Sharon Held, Local Coordinator, Ann Arbor, MI

After last year’s YES Conference, I became inspired to work harder to incorporate a leadership program into our already busy activities schedule. We turned our Mid- Year Orientation into a “Leadership Retreat” and talked about leadership characteristics, saw a terrific documentary (“Emmanuel’s Gift”) about a disabled boy in Ghana who changed the perception of disabled people in Ghana. Then they learned about several service project options and selected Pennies For Peace.

Several weeks ago, our YES students, along with teams of AFSers, made 30 classroom presentations in 4 elementary schools to tell the kids about themselves, AFS, and Pennies for Peace and asked the kids to join them in raising money to help educate children in the remote, mountainous regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The children LOVED the whole thing and so did their teachers. The kids asked a lot of questions about exchange programs and the countries from which these students had come, and they brought in a LOT of pennies! The final tally was $1154.19 (and that’s a lot of pennies!!).

In addition to the students pictured, the students involved were Najat Hashim, YES Philippines; Laura Pund, CB Germany; Hortense Jousse, France; Clara Eidt, CB Germany; Kyoko Yoshida, Japan; Natalia Amira, Chile and Bernd Andersson, Austria.

The exchange students also did their own fundraising for a trip to Chicago and donations to Kiva, which connects people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Photo: Nurasiah Jamil (Indonesia), Laura (Germany), Anucha (Thailand) and Dianita (Chile)