History students connect with Nigerians to solve problems in the developing world
In Ms. Quinet's World History class, students not only learn the pasts of foreign cultures and countries, they work to solve the problems they face in the present.
At the start of the project, students were broken into teams and assigned to an ethnic group to research. The culture, traditions, and history of the Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and Fulani peoples of Nigeria were studied and presented to the class by each team. With this background, Mary Quinet presented on a variety of contemporary issues in Nigeria--everything from tensions between ethnic groups, disputes over secular and Islamic law, and the underlying causes of poverty. |
Students were then asked to select a problem or need in modern day Nigeria and put forth a solution. Students established a Twitter account @STMnigeria to connect with Nigerians around the world and gain an empathetic understanding of the issues affecting them. Several Nigerian families were also identified within the St. Martin's community as potential resources as well. Eniola Korede--a 10th grader at St. Martin's whose family moved to New Orleans--came in to speak with the students about life in Nigeria from her perspective as a child in Lagos and Abuja.
Through the meeting with Eniola and discussions over Twitter and by email, students began to investigate problems related to the lack of access to clean water, electricity, and healthcare services; the spread of infectious diseases such as polio, malaria, and AIDS; terrorism; government corruption; high unemployment and subsistence farming; child malnutrition; and environmental damage due to oil drilling. In addition, several not-so-obvious problems also emerged--including the education of nomadic peoples and the "brain drain" caused by educated people moving away from Nigeria. Students connected with several non-governmental organizations including The Carter Center and Project Peanut Butter--an organization focussed on malnutrition--as well as government officials at the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria. The telephone interviews with Laurie Hudson and Barry Nickelsberg, who is the chief development
officer, at The Carter Center were especially enlightening.
With a more nuanced understanding of the issues affecting Nigerians, teams of four did a rapid brainstorming exercise in The Idea Lab to imagine as many solutions as possible. These initial ideas were then whittled down, combined, developed into outlines, and evaluated by classmates. Using this feedback, teams developed their final paper proposals and presented to the class. Some of solutions put forth by the teams were quite shocking. Teams suggested solutions in the following areas:
With a more nuanced understanding of the issues affecting Nigerians, teams of four did a rapid brainstorming exercise in The Idea Lab to imagine as many solutions as possible. These initial ideas were then whittled down, combined, developed into outlines, and evaluated by classmates. Using this feedback, teams developed their final paper proposals and presented to the class. Some of solutions put forth by the teams were quite shocking. Teams suggested solutions in the following areas:
- HIV/AIDS and Prostitution: Destymatize the diagnosis and receiving help, Remove incentives to prostitutions (particularly a ban on travel between Nigeria and Italy which is a major source of "recreational" tourism), Campaigns to dissolve unhealthy societal expectations for women, Sex education and distribution of free condoms, Rehab centers to help women regain their dignity
- Malaria: Distribute low-cost bed nets, Release flocks of mosquito-eating Starling birds which are fast reproducers and survive in many environments
- Malnutrition and Health Services: Create and support a fleet of nutrition-mobile clinics for access to food and health services
- Clean water: Fund and distribute low-cost water filters, Create distilled water factories in major cities (also helps with unemployment)
- Unemployment: Build and maintain a reliable power grid, Entrepreneurship courses, Decrease interest rates to encourage small businesses, Create jobs in medical and food industries, Promote public works projects and improve public transportation
- Crime: Develop and support trained law enforcement officials