Good News Stories
- Jun 6, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 15, 2019
I absolutely love good news stories and especially those which highlight individuals being able to access education more readily.
Three recent ones which have really warmed my heart relate to (i) solar panel backpacks in the Ivory Coast, (ii) illiterate Korean grandmothers joining an elementary school, and (iii) Lego Braille bricks.
The short Al Jazeera Ray of hope for pupils in Ivory Coast video focuses on the rationale for and the benefits of the solar backpacks for students in a rural village in Ivory Coast. Mindful that many of the children (i) are poor and would not normally have access to electricity and thus their ability to do homework assignments at night was severely compromised and (ii) frequently used rice sacks or plastic bags to take things to and from school, these backpacks, in the words of Evariste Akoumian, “... kill two birds with one stone: give them a backpack - and a light to go with it." These backpacks are also designed to last at least five years which means that aside from being good for children on an individual basis and the village as a whole, they are also good news for the environment.
The New York Times article, Running Out of Children, a South Korea School Enrolls Illiterate Grandmothers, references the ramifications of industrialization combined with a falling population in South Korea which has lead to many rural schools having fewer and fewer students enrolling. As a result, Daegu Elementary in Gangjin County chose - so as to ensure it would not be forced to close due to low enrolment - to enrol some illiterate grandmothers who had previously been unable to attend school. 70 year old Hwang Wol-geum who rides the bus to school with her grandchildren has the clear aim of “Writing letters to my children, that’s what I dreamed of the most,” regarding her path to literacy.
By virtue of the Braille Lego bricks also having a printed letter or character allows for inclusivity as both sighted and partially sighted/blind parents, students and teachers can interact. The ultimate aim is to help visually impaired children learn to read Braille while playing.
Too often we hear negativity with regards to programmes being closed down, insufficient funding, or - especially in the US - the correlation between spending on prison and spending on education. Thus it is delightful to hear such heartwarming stories that change the typical narrative and push the boundaries of learning to make it more inclusive in all respects.
What good news stories do you have to share?
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