UNESCO WEEK

In December 2009 we had a special theme week in our school. The goal was to make sure our students truly understand what it means to be a UNESCO - school and to promote the guiding principles of UNESCO.

Thus we had something special laid out for each day of the week, naturally somehow related to UNESCO themes. We saw animated films that a group of students had made, opened an art exhibition presenting art works not only made by our students but also from our partner school Medina High School, USA. The UNESCO themes were also dealt with in ordinary lessons and in the end of the week there was a quiz for all students.

The highlight of the week was the Tanzanian day on Dec 9th. We had the privilege of having five most interesting guests informing and entertaining us.

Henry Shoma

Miriam Attias

















Menard and Deogratius

Kai Tirkkonen











We had two dancers/musicians from Tampere, Menard and Deogratius Mponda, a young Tanzanian student Henry Happy Shoma from Oulu, a Red Cross worker Miriam Attias from Oulu and a photographer Kai Tirkkonen from Haukipudas.

Our visitors attended classes in the morning sharing their knowledge about Tanzania and Africa in general. Later that day we had workshops in which we learnt even more about their previous homecountry and the work of Red Cross. An absolutely fabulous - and sweaty - experience was to learn an African dance and a song to it. After getting first hand taste of this kind of self expression, we saw a breathtaking show with singing, drums and dancing. The performers' skills literally filled us with awe and admiration. Finally we listened to a presentation and saw fantastic photographs taken in the deepest Tanzania, among the Makonde tribe. The tribe makes sculptures out of ebony and Mr Tirkkonen imports them to help these poor craftsmen. We got to admire these beautiful pieces of art too.

The day was a great success and we want to thank all our guests from the bottom of our hearts!

-by AMO