deutsche Version

Project Day of the UNESCO project schools “Native Country - Integration“

Reflection of the Project Day at the Robert-Bosch-Comprehensive School

1. Native Country - Integration

Reflection of the year topic in regards to the life of indigenous peoples in Paraguay

In cooperation with the association “Help the Indians in Paraguay“(„Indianerhilfe in Paraguay e.V.) the senior students, especially the Spanish course, compiled aspects of the living conditions and cultures of indigenous peoples in Paraguay.

In addition we had an exhibition with impressive pictures and texts about the topic. This exhibition was made possible by the support of the association “Lebenshilfe in Paraguay e.V.”, which especially helps mentally disabled people and their families.

Finally we heard speeches of very competent speakers in the auditorium of our school. The following article by our student Mona Fritze gives a good impression of these activities:

„“The country we don’t really ever hear anything about”

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“The seasons of the earth are actually also the seasons of the soul and the body“.

The audience is listening to this Indian saying, which is read by Neele Inkermann, grade 13, Robert-Bosch-Comprehensive School. In the background you can hear sounds from Paraguay.

It is November 2, 2008. Students, teachers, and guests have all come together in front of the stage of the Robert-Bosch-Comprehensive School to take part in the opening of the exhibition “Living environments – Indians in Paraguay”.

After one student has talked about the impressions from Paraguay by Alexander von Humboldt and another student has made everybody think by reading the Indian saying, the principal Wilfried Kretschmer welcomes the guests.

After giving some information about Paraguay he introduces the association “Help the Indians in Paraguay“(„Indianerhilfe in Paraguay e.V.“). The leader of this association, Gerold Buhl, and his team voluntarily help the indigenous peoples in Paraguay, that are excluded from society and banished from their original lands. The association has organized and compiled the exhibition.

“Who has spent some time in Paraguay will take home a strong impression and he or she will feel the urge to go there again“ quotes Lydia Höllings (UNESCO coordinator of the Robert-Bosch-Comprehensive School) from the new book “Indie Zukunft“ (‘future of the indigenous peoples’) by the association “Help the Indians in Paraguay“ (Indianerhilfe in Paraguay e.V.)

Together with her colleague, Dietrich Schmidt, she points out in her speech that it is necessary to take action and help the indigenous peoples in Paraguay and to get personally involved.

The guitar sounds from Paraguay by Denny Adelmund give us an impression of the Indians’ emotions.

Roland Danner, the second leader of the association, begins his speech with the greeting of the shamans “Mai Chaba“, which means something like “Are you okay? “. The members of the association help the indigenous peoples from Paraguay in the four areas “safeguarding the country by taking legal actions”, “improving the food supply”, “improving health”, and “education”.

“It is important that the Indians keep their religion, their culture, and their way of living. Nothing happens against their wishes,“ says Roland Danner.

For Professor Manfred Zimmermann the aim of the exhibition is to bring “the country we don’t really ever hear anything about” to the visitors’ attention. Especially the problems of the indigenous peoples, who are being banished from their original lands, are not known by many people here in Germany. He wants to achieve this aim with the impressive photos he took of the exhibition, since a photo can be “read” by all nations. Manfred Zimmermann is especially impressed by the social behaviour of the Indians. In his speech he says “Indians are smart, intelligent people. Not savages. We can learn from them indefinitely.“. Only in the end of the exhibition it became clear, who had initiated the whole thing – Marlene Feindt, grade 12, had noticed this great country in the Museum of Ethnology, Hamburg.

To learn more about Paraguay, she had travelled there and reported her experiences to the audience. From the grey, cold winter here in Germany she had ravelled directly to the warm and sunny Paraguay. She was impressed by the red earth and the red streets and by the juicy green of the plants. However, the gap between rich and poor was shocking to her. Especially the difference between the poverty here in Germany and the poverty in Paraguay. Children with no shoes on, who clean windshields till late at night to make some money. What would be a shock to the people here in Germany is everyday life in Paraguay.

“Children there die of diseases as harmless as diarrhoea“, says Marlene. However, sometimes she envies the people there for their happiness and their kindness that they have in spite of their terrible problems.

In the end you can hear the sounds from Paraguay again and the visitors look at the pictures and texts of the exhibition. They can now think about the words from the speeches they have heard underlined by the pictures and the music in the background.

The aim to bring “the country we don’t really ever hear anything about“ to the visitors’ attention had already been achieved in the very beginning of the exhibition.

2. Further plans motivated by the Project Day Native Country - Integration

Next to the reflection of the different dimensions of native countries in relation to our contacts to people from other cultures we took the project day as a motive for organizing events and lesson-plans.

In an author reading the topic was illuminated in regards to human rights for the students of grade 7 to 10. The author of books for young people, Urs Fiechtner, who is originally from South America, read several texts about the topic “the right to have a native country – human rights in native countries”.

3. Project Day Native Country – Integration

Taking part in the art competition of the UNESCO project schools from Lower Saxony

The topic allows a complex discussion of the terms INTEGRATION and NATIVE COUNTRY.

The Robert-Bosch-Comprehensive School had applied with works from the religion lessons and the art lessons of the classes 5.1, 5.2, and 9.6.

In the current school year the students created pictures and objects which represented individual standpoints towards this focus.

The reflection of the political dimensions of the term ’Native Country’ were also the centre of attention.

show gallery "Heimattüten"	show gallery "Heimatbücher"

The event was planned, organized, and carried out interdisciplinarily. Twenty-three UNESCO project schools from all the different kinds of schools took part in this competition. Our students from grade 5 and grade 9 presented their own ‘Native Country Books’, and ‘Scenes from the Native Country’. They got very involved in the topic during the development of these works.