Joining Hands Pen-Pal Project

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The Student Movement for Real Change works to connect young people around the world.  Personal relationships are imperative to understanding and awareness.

The Joining Hands Pen-Pal Project (JHPP) seeks to link South African and Kenyan students with American students through a letter-writing, pen-pal program.  It also hopes to inspire personal responsibility and leadership by involving local college students in tutoring of youth.

SMRC believes that through the empowerment of youth around the world, developing communities worldwide will begin to enjoy opportunities once believed impossible.  This generation of young people has the capacity to communicate with nearly anyone in the world with little effort.  SMRC hopes to facilitate that communication.

Three Components

Part 1 – Writing Letters. U.S. elementary and middle school students and South African or Kenyan primary school students are paired as pen pals.  SMRC members from university chapters will identify local elementary or middle schools and propose the project to interested principals and teachers.  Partner schools will be found in South Africa of Kenya (for US schools) or the US (for SA or Kenyan schools).  Students will write letters to students at their partner schools about relevant cultural issues. U.S. elementary and middle schools not located nearby college campuses write and sent letters directly to the national SMRC office.

Part 2 – Tutoring. SMRC members “adopt” elementary/ middle/ high schools or primary schools they are working with and develop a relationship by means of tutoring students and visiting the school one or two times per week.  Though it will only be possible for students to write letters about once a month (because of travel time), SMRC members will still go to their adopted schools at least once a week to educate, tutor, and mentor. 

Part 3 – Fundraising. U.S. college SMRC members fundraise for partner schools in South Africa. U.S. SMRC members will make a pledge to their partner school to raise a certain amount of money, $5 for example, for every letter that is written. All money will go directly to the partner schools in Africa.
     
Student Movement establishes a working relationship with teachers, principals, and schools interested in pursuing the Joining Hands project.  We are confident that this project will be a success and are excited about the limitless transfer of ideas and global communication!

Take a look here to see some letters that have already been sent from students in South Africa.

Learn more about establishing your own Joining Hands project in your community, please look over the operations kit and contact our office for more information at jhpp@studentmovementusa.org.

• Find out what it takes by looking over the operations kit, downloadable in PDF format. This wil give you a good idea of what to expect.
           Operations Kit (PDF)
  
  
• Contact SMRC at JHPP@StudentMovementUSA.org to begin the process.