At La Loma school, students have led actions to learn about and reflect on a rare disease, known as ‘Butterfly Skin’, to give it visibility, as it has little support at the social-health and research level. Affected families need economic and human resources to be able to care for their children. Students also raised awareness of how these problems are even greater in impoverished countries.
We highlight the following activities:
- Presentation of the project to students and their families.
- Learning activities about the disease: readings, talk by the NGO ‘Debra, Piel de Mariposa’, -.
- Visit to the shop of the NGO ‘Debra, Piel de Mariposa’ and proposal for the organisation and storage of donated material in our school.
- Organisation of a fundraising race.
- Design and elaboration of solidarity bibs and making of the promotional video of the fundraising race.
- Celebration of the Project.
150 students from fourth and fifth grade (10-12 years old) have involved in this project. In the evaluation the vast majority of students reported feeling more confident in the different areas in general, mainly in the areas of Language and Mathematics.
And regarding values, most of the students have stated that they have learned new things, basically they are:
- Learning to respect all people
- To learn about a new disease
- To learn how to take care of ourselves and others
- To learn what an NGO is and how they help other people
- Learning to show solidarity and empathy towards children with Butterfly Skin.
Thus, one of the teachers involved in the project says:
“The Teaching Team values this project in a very, very positive way, as it has helped the students to improve not only their academic skills, but also their social skills, which are so important at this age when they are forming their critical thinking. It has also been an improvement for us, the teachers, as we have faced new challenges and it has taught us to trust the students and their abilities. It has shown us that when they like something, they give their all and do things really well.”
