While living in Tanna, Vanuatu, I taught at a small primary school. The kids were energetic and so thirsty for knowledge! I was working with children 10 to 12 years old. One of the classes I taught consisted of all the kids in grade four who were behind grade level. It was more than half the class. When I started working with them, many did not know how to read and some did not even know the alphabet yet they were such bright kids and learned so fast. After four months, every single one could read at grade level. These kids wanted to learn - they would come to school jumping up and down with excitement. They wanted to learn but had not been given the opportunity. Most of them were behind because they had not started at the same time as the others or had missed years of school for financial reasons. These kids we taught who had some schooling were better off than most of the kids on the island. Most the kids do not get to go to school because fees are too high. It is common for a village to all put their money together to send one child in the village to school. 48% of kids go to primary school but half of them are like the kids I taught who are behind and can not catch up because the classes are too much and they had a late start. When the time comes to take the exams for high school, only 23% actually go to high school. The cost of education seems low to us but it can take a whole village working to put one child through school. Our goal for this organization is to be constantly expanding the amount of children we send to school each year, by providing the funds necessary, which they do not have. When we came back from living on Tanna, I realized how harsh our society is. We have definite ideas of what is beautiful or "normal" and are pretty close minded and exclusive of those we feel don't fit into our ideal. I think that by letting people experience different cultures and realize how big and divers this world is, or at least put it in proper perspective. People can be changed by being exposed to different cultures in a way that allows them to see the beauty of them. In our world that is constantly getting smaller, I feel it is very important be culturally savvy. One of the goals of this organization would be to help open peoples eyes to the rest of the world and help them break free of some of the dysfunctional thinking of their own society. We are trying to do this through our Artwork.
