On Thursday the 28th of March, TY students visited Donabate Portrane Educate Together National School to celebrate Global Health Day.
At the beginning of the day, 6th class students were presented with short 2 minute presentations called “gongs”. Adult facilitators Ellie, Abby and Maria and TY students, Alanna, Thomas and Eoin gave the presentations. They gave a short introduction to Global Health and topics such as access to medicine, water and sanitation and the effects of social media on your mental health. Alanna showed the 6th class students how to effectively wash your hands in her presentation.
6th class students were separated into groups and put into different rooms with TY and adult facilitators. The first game that was played was called “Giant Steps”. Children were given a sheet with a short biography of a person with an illness in either a first world country or a third world country. Facilitators read out a list of statements and if they were relevant to their character they took a big step forward and if they were only slightly relevant they took a small step forward. In the end, the students with the first world characters were further forward than their third world counterparts. Facilitators then discussed how different their lives would be if they were in a third world country and vice-versa. This shows the difference in availability of medical facilities and infrastructure in the developed countries versus the developing countries.
Later on, the students were put into groups of 4 and given the task of reading through descriptions of 12 people. They then made the decision to keep 6 people who they thought could help to start a new civilisation, given that there is a zombie apocalypse. 6 people then have to leave in a safety pod to return to earth after the apocalypse. The groups found this task somewhat difficult as they had many conflicting opinions, and had to think about the people and if they were helpful based on their skills, professions and characteristics and if they were good people. At the end of the task, they were asked why they chose their 6 zombie apocalypse survivors.
The children gave short presentations about facts they found interesting or something new they learned in small groups of 3 and the best ones presented to the 5th class students at the debate.
Finally, the 6th class students took part in a debate. 5th class students joined us to watch. The motion was that “children in Cambodia have no chance of an excellent education”. Both sides made valid opening statements and then debated their points further. They took many questions from the audience and were able to answer them all. The 6th class students made excellent debaters and were very well spoken and knowledgeable about the topic. In the end, the side against the motion won with Lily chosen as the best speaker.
Thanks to the 6th class students for being so enthusiastic and the teachers in DPETNS for letting us teach the students about the importance of global health. Finally, a big thank you to all the adult facilitators for teaching the TY students about global health and allowing us to be part of this day in DPENTS.
By Maria Doyle and Ellie Griffin, TY Journalism
