Highlights
IBIS breaks through the media wall The press monitoring bureau Infomedia has registered that, in 2010, IBIS was mentioned almost 1,000 times in the Danish media. More precisely, the figure is 998 or almost four times as high as in 2009, when, according to Infomedia, IBIS featured in the media 274 times. IBIS’s education campaign in the Danish state schools, ”Whole World in School”, accounts for most of the hits in the media. In 2009, the campaign’s activities were mentioned 60 times.
The following year, the number rose to 281 (in September 2011 the figure has reached 254). In 2010, the earthquake in Haiti and the big Danish Fundraising Campaign lead to IBIS being mentioned 207 times in the media. IBIS’s political focus on taxation and development also achieved considerable impact in newspapers, radio and television in 2010, where IBIS was mentioned 91 times in this connection.
The Achuar Indians live in the Amazon region and are dependent on nature, which the oil companies have started to destroy
The hole world in school 2010/2011
”EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO SCHOOLING, AND IT MUST BE LONG. WHY IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HERE AND THERE, WHEN EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO A LIFE LIKE HERE?” (4th grade students, Avedøre school) The target of all the world’s children attend ing school has still not been reached. But thanks to the ”Whole World in School” campaign more than 180,000 Danish schoolchildren have now learned how important it is to learn to read and count also for children in other countries. Two major events in particular have been placed on the table in the school year 2010-2011. The big newspaper competition ”A world in poverty,” was launched in autumn 2010 and, in spring 2011, the focus was on Bolivia, which was the theme of IBIS’s popular reader the ”Reading Rocket”. The newspaper competition was collaboration between the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet and 300 school classes across the country converted the classroom to an editorial office from which they wrote articles about the world’s poorest. IBIS helped the budding journalists with
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expert knowledge about Africa and Latin America. Minister of Education, Tina Nedergaard (V), handed over the trophy to the two winning classes and she was not in doubt for a moment about the learning aspect of the competition: ”The most valuable aspect of this newspaper competition is that so many schools have reflected on what poverty really is.”
The “Reading Rocket” in bolivia
The Danish schoolchildren were given even more to reflect on when IBIS’s reader ”Reading Rocket” landed in Danish schools in the week up to Easter. In the book, students could, amongst other things, read stories of schoolchildren in Bolivia who cannot understand what the teacher says because they speak their native language while the teacher can only speak Spanish. The website verdeniskole.dk (’world in school’) that complements The ”Reading Rocket” had been given a real brush up with small videos, thematic pages and interactive educational materials. Last but not least, last year’s huge success with a ’Reading Caravan’ of volunteers was repeated and, after a trip to Bolivia, the eight volunteers gave presentations at 50 schools across the country. The culmination of this year’s ”Whole
Great praise for the Reading Caravan ”Then came the day. DUPER SUPER SUPER speakers. Very well prepared and proficient, which could keep our sweet but fidgety children in primary schools calm? Pleasant. Exciting. But gosh - the other classes were so jealous that we immediately decided to have common topic weeks next year. ” School teacher on the ’Reading Caravan’ visit World in School” campaign was three days of action, which were held in Aarhus, Aalborg and Copenhagen in early May. This gave the pupils an opportunity to sing, dance and get a taste of Bolivia. The icing on the cake was a big puzzle (Denmark’s largest!), which filled 229 square meters and consisted of 4,583 pieces on which the pupils had designed and written what they had learned in school. But holes in the puzzle illustrated that not all children have the opportunity to attend school.
Facts
• A collection on Teachers’ Day amoun ted to 88,000 DKK. The money goes to an IBIS school project in Liberia. • The ”Whole World in School” cam paign reached 254 media hits in the first half of 2011. • In 2011, the ”Reading Rocket” appear ed for the first time in Greenlandic.
IBIS project vinds Operation Day’s work Rune Geertsen IBIS received overwhelming support for its project in Peru, ”The oil in the rainforest - the silent disaster” because Operation Day’s Work selected the project for the 2011 collection. This means that, this November, high school students across the country will work one day for the Achuar Indians in Peru. These people are deeply affected by the
ravaging of oil companies and the huge quantities of spilt oil, which every day flow out and pollute the jungle. But the poor and poorly educated Achuar Indians are easy to exploit. The goal of the Day’s Work project is to create awareness of the problem and prepare residents to take up the struggle against oil companies.
Collaboration with private companies Since 2006, IBIS has cooperated with the Toms Group on combating child labour in the cocoa areas of Ghana. This has involved training for teachers, involvement of local communities and parents, establishment of school boards, parents’ councils and advocacy at local and national level. A positive evaluation has given both Toms and IBIS the urge to continue the work, and right now money is being raised to expand the project to three new districts in Ghana. Meanwhile, Toms has donated funds for, already in 2010/2011, strengthen ing schools in the region including teaching materials and teacher training. This year, IBIS also entered another exciting collaboration, as Hempel has chosen to support IBIS’s training program in Mozambique with 400,000 crowns a year for an initial three year period. The funds are allocated to the project ”The Happy School” which aims to strengthen children’s well-being and learning
NGO Forum IBIS has, since the turn of the year, been chairman of the NGO Forum. NGO Forum is collaboration among 50 Danish development organisations, all interested in following and influencing Danish development policy. NGO Forum works to develop the organisations’ professional capacity in selected areas, informs and coordinates opinions to influence development policies. During the past year, the NGO Forum has, amongst other things, participated in the debate on a new strategy for Danish development assistance.
The education project in Ghana has shown that availability of proper education can reduce child labour. This is done, for example, by equipping a school library and reading club at the school, teaching craft and practical skills, organizing sports and games before and after school and, not at least, by paying special attention to the many orphaned children. See more on www.ibis.dk/csr
Clement Kjærsgaard hosted one of this year’s debates
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