Pupils from St Paul’s High and St Roch’s Secondary in Glasgow have joined forces with Kibble Education and Care Centre in Paisley and Plockton High in the Highlands for an eight-month global citizenship and environmental study project with families from Ecuador and the Galapagos islands.
The 17 pupils will join education services staff from Glasgow City Council from August 18-September 5 to work in Balerio Estacio in Guayaquil, Ecuador, helping families who live in abject poverty. They will paint murals at four nursery schools built last summer, deliver basic IT and English lessons and prepare and deliver hot meals to the sick and elderly.
Part of the project has entailed writing to companies and schools to ask for donations of second-hand computers, sewing machines and toys. The aim is to raise awareness of poverty, forge relationships between Ecuadorian and Scottish schools, appreciate and embrace the culture and customs, as well as raising awareness of global warming and risks to protected species facing extinction in the Galapagos islands, such as the giant tortoise, above.
It is hoped the sewing machines will be used by the women in Balerio Estacio to set up a Fairtrade business. The finished products will be sold in Scotland by the participating group who will monitor and evaluate the success of the project as well as keeping the accounts and records.
