Visions for Children e. V. is not only active in Afghanistan and Uganda in the field of development cooperation and engagement for educational justice. Also in Germany we are keen to raise awareness for these issues. As part of our domestic project, we are working with experts and educators in order to develop teaching materials on topics such as global crises, development cooperation and international relations for Hamburg's high schools and district schools.
Pupils in Germany have too little contact with the topic of development policy in school lessons. There is too little discussion of the living conditions and effects of crises on poorer and war-affected cultural groups. Complex interrelationships, such as the consequences of flight and migration, as well as the own privileges can thus only be understood with difficulty. Also Germany's own role and responsibility in solving global crises is often not clear to the students.
We are creating teaching materials for grades 8 to 10 at schools in Hamburg that convey the international networks and relationships, current challenges and approaches to solutions in development cooperation and policy using the example of Afghanistan. The students learn to value their self-evident right to education and their diverse educational opportunities and understand that in the face of global problems and conflicts, global solutions must be created, to which everyone can contribute.
With our project we want to make children and young people aware of development policy issues at an early age. We are firmly convinced that the most effective approach to do so, is to start precisely where the most can still be achieved for the future: in the schools. If children encounter these issues early on in their school careers, it can have a lasting impact on their view of the world and is passed on to their environment - thus leading to a more understanding and reflective society.
