Skip to content

Local students fundraising for international initiative

Students at École Fox Run School recently sold pink lemonade in support of the campaign ‘Because I am a Girl’.
22087sylvanlake160414-SLA-BecauseIamaGirl
BECAUSE I AM A GIRL – École Fox Run School students Tatyanna Stoesz

Students at École Fox Run School recently sold pink lemonade in support of the campaign ‘Because I am a Girl’.

Money raised for the campaign helps provide access to education, clean water and health care for girls around the world.

The fundraiser was held last year as well, with the girls involved having raised around $300.

This money will go a long ways said the school’s Gr. 8 teacher Renee Eastwood.

“It could help pay for someone’s education, sometimes it can go towards buying a goat,” Eastwood said.

Buying a goat could help families make money by selling milk or making cheese to sell. This money can then be used for a girl’s education.

“To that girl it makes a world of difference,” Eastwood said.

Students taking the complementary option learn not only about the, ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign but how girls live in other parts of the world.

Students learn about self-esteem building activities and learn how lucky they are to be in Canada in comparison to other girls in other parts of the world.

“At 13 years old you may be married and already have a child,” Eastwood said.

The students learn a great deal and are exposed to those different types of things.

“I think it also makes us proud to be girls living in society and proud of who we are,” she said.

Some of what the students have learned has been surprising. They can’t believe how blessed they are to be born in Canada. They learned about how the country they are born in would determine how they live their lives.

As part of the option, the students journal and used the hashtag ‘#OneDayIWill’. They talked about their dreams and what they wanted to accomplish living in Canada.

This helped them to learn that girls in other parts of the world may not be able to dream as big as they do.

“In our society it’s not a big deal to have a dream. We don’t think twice about it, but in some places having a dream is unheard of for some girls,” Eastwood said. “Discussing and understanding that also relates to their social curriculum as well.”

Not being able to dream big isn’t just a girl’s problem. It can be a boy’s problem as well.

The boys learn about these issues in social studies as well.

“Just because you’re a boy doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about the plight of girls in the world,” Eastwood said.

She said many of the boys are talking about feminism. She highlighted how you don’t have to be a female to be a feminist and to care about the equality of women across the global scale.

“Teaching that, discussing that and making boys care because they need to care as well,” Eastwood said.

reporter@sylvanlakenews.com