Earlier this year GKEF sponsored an educational field trip for the children in our program. Board member and Enco-Cinq community member, Karim Koumbassa, took the Guinea Kids' students on a field trip to the village of Habita. The children in our program are inner city kids, many of whom have never been in a car let alone out to the village or the fields where their food grows.
Karim was inspired with this idea to supplement the children's school education with some experiential learning about their food culture, where their food comes from, how it is grown and used. So one day they all piled into a magbana (bus or van) and set off for the fields of Habita.
Some of the children had never even been in a moving vehicle, so there were a couple sick tummies on the way out to the farmland.
Once they were arrived in Habita, the children toured the fields to see where such foods as eggplant, pineapple, peppers, and rice grow. Many of the children had never seen how a pineapple grows...
A Habita woman working in the fields spoke to the students about the food growing on the land...
Next the GKEF students walked through the palm forest and learned about the many uses of the palm tree. There are at least 5 different things the palm tree is used for in Guinea: 2 different oils, medicine, roofing, and palm wine.
The children say goodbye to the farmland and Karim shares some of his thoughts on this exceptional experience for the children...
"This is not a small thing" for these children to be generously given these experiences in their lives. This was such a special event to them. You can see how most of them wore their best clothes...to go out in a farming field! But it was the act of kindness, the act of being treated to a field trip that made it a special occasion; something that most of the children we know here in the States take for granted as a part of their education. This trip for them was very out of the ordinary. They know they are part of something special; that people around the world care about their educations, their lives. I often wonder at the difference that knowing is making in these children's lives and the lives of those around them.
If you have been a contributor to GKEF in the past, thank you so very much for supporting the dreams of these children. GKEF is able to assist them because of you.
If you would like to get onboard with supporting these kids or continue to support them, visit http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/gkef.
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