DISQUS

Neil Hokanson · 1 year ago

Two of our 10 elementary schools have a sister school in Uganda this year via our new superintendent's connections as a board member of Project Inkwell. Three of my own children happen to be in one of the schools.

They received their first video from Uganda a couple of weeks ago, and the grass soccer ball the Ugandan children were playing with hit home. The children were amazed with the contrast between their lives here in the US and with the kids in Uganda. The schools immediately raised funds for soccer balls and other equipment to be sent ASAP to Uganda.

The connection has been made between these children from two different worlds on a very personal level, and our kids have learned a new meaning of compassion and being grateful.

We are in the process of setting up some kind of communication via a blog that will connect the students so they can collaborate and teach each other, and we have hopes of video conferencing in the future. We are tapping into several connections to get the capabilities to Uganda to make this possible.

This is another example of a real connection that creates meaningful, authentic engagement.