Did you ever think about this?

Are you still complaining?

Observe around you and be thankful for all that you have in this transitory lifetime...

We are fortunate, we have much more than what we need to be content. Let's try not to feed this endless cycle of consumerism and immorality in which this "modern and advanced" society forgets and ignores the other two thirds of our brothers and sisters.

Let us complain less and give more!

Posted by Tiina Mustakangas, Source: Anonymous email

Written presentations of Finnish nature sent to Tanzania

During this school year our students have written essays and made presentations to be held here at school and to be sent to our partner school in Tanzania. The topics have varied from Finnish nature and seasons, our UNESCO World Heritage Sites to the ecological problems we are facing at the moment. We believe the students widened their understanding of our biodiversity and are thus able to give our friends in Tanzania a glimpse of Finland.
-by Anja Moilanen

UN Millenium Goal Poetry Competition

By Tiina Mustakangas

The students of Haukipudas High School have been writing poems on UN Millenium Goals in their English Culture Course for some time now. The artistic talent and the touching contents of the poems have surprised their English teachers. It isn't easy to write a good poem in a foreign language, but our students succeeded very well.

Before leaving to our fall break in October, a jury of 14 students and a jury of English teachers read through all the poems (on the poetry section of our website), and voted on the best ones.
The winner of the poetry competition was unanimously Siiri Jänkälä who wrote the following poem:

There are bones in Africa that need flesh
What about water which is fresh?

It's horrible when reality hits
What have they done to deserve this?

Instead of all that sorrow
You can always dream of a better tomorrow

Congratulations Siiri!

The human rights I consider most important

Human rights are a tricky subject as different cultures have differing views on them either based on religious reasons or practical ones.

One such right, among others, is defined in the United Nations’ Declaration of human rights: freedom of religion. While it is admirable in itself, I would extend it to a complete, total freedom of choice, be it ideological, political, economical etc. I strongly feel that every single person should not only be allowed to make the decisions concerning their life but also able to make them. However, it is merely the ideal destination to get to and not exactly an accomplishable goal, but the world would most definite be a much better place if we at least tried.

Closely connected to freedom is equality. For example, women’s position in Islamic culture is massively different to the western conception of the independent woman. In my view, each individual should receive the same treatment and respect from other people regardless of their gender, skin colour, nationality, ethnicity, language or occupation. Then again, this highlights my first point: it’s a choice made by Islamic women and I’m in no position to judge that.

Naturally, the ability to make decisions at all depends on one thing: knowledge, which brings up two rights. Firstly, everyone, in my opinion, has a right to gain and accumulate knowledge so much as they please. This means that everyone is entitled to education, preferably a free one, and that the distribution of information should be entirely free. The absence of censorship would then emphasize the parents’ responsibility even more.

On a more recent topic relating to the system known as school, people should be able to study in their own language, which would enhance their process of handling vital information and thus make it more accessible to them.

Then there is the basis for everything else. Every single human being should positively and absolutely have the right and possibility to satisfy their utmost basic needs: to eat when hungry, quench their thirst, have proper hygiene and be healthy. On the subject, Mahatma Gandhi once said, and I quote: “The world has enough resources to satisfy everyone’s needs, but not enough to satisfy everyone’s greed.”

By Juhani Pätsi (student of Haukipudas High School)

Haapajärvi High School joins our school network

Haapajärvi High School has become a new partner in our school’s Tanzania network. The meeting between the teachers of Haukipudas and Haapajärvi High Schools was held at the UNESCO ASP schools’ meeting in Jyväskylä this weekend.

The English teacher, Marja Iskanius, has been in charge of the Haapajärvi High School’s projects to Africa since 2002. The first project involved 26 high school students, and it consisted of sending medical equipment to the local hospital, as well as a two-week field trip to the friendship school in Namibia.

This year Marja will be taking a group of 20 students to their two friendship schools, Korongoni School and Machame Girls’ School, in Moshi, North Tanzania. Together with the local charity organizations, Haapajärvi High School has provided their African friends with a school building, electricity, as well as computers, faxes and printers. The students have also been working hard to collect money for their 10-days’ trip to Tanzania for two years now. The departure day, 16th October, is getting close, and the students, together with their teacher, are very busy with their final preparations for the trip.

The projects in Haapajärvi are excellent examples of a successful co-operation between Finnish and Tanzanian high schools, and serve as the best possible model for Haukipudas High School which is looking for new ways to get students more involved in its project in Tanzania.

This websight will serve as the first contact forum for our schools’ network. Students from Haapajärvi High School are welcome to join our earlier discussions on the UN Millenium Goals, as well as the Tanzania project of Haukipudas High School. We are looking forward to reading your opinions and comments, and hope our friends in Medina High School in Ohio will join us, and get to know the students in Haapajärvi, too.

On the 9th December, The national day of Tanzania, Haukipudas High School has a special program in which the English teacher Marja Iskanius together with her "Tanzania group", will come and tell our school about the different phases of their project, as well as all the exciting and memorable experiences they had on their trip in Africa.

More information about the project and the trip on: http://edu.haapajarvi.fi/lukio/tansania/

By Tiina Mustakangas

A Tanzanian IT-expert joins our school network

Mr. Elikana Ngogo, a Tanzanian information technology specialist currently living and working in Finland, has joined our school network and is eager to assist Haukipudas High School with our efforts to send used computers to our friendship school in Tanzania. Mr. Ngogo is one of the founders of the association called “Computerized Society”, the goal of which is to collect used computers from different parts of the world, and send them to young students in Tanzania, Africa. Mr Ngogo's goal is to make Tanzanian students literate users of information and communication technologies, but as Tanzania depends on imported IT-technology, they have to turn to countries which are advanced in their production and application of technology. The majority of Tanzanian schools also depend on second hand technology as new equipment is too expensive to afford. (//es.joensuu.fi/pub/Theses/2008_MSc_Ngogo_Elikana_Obadia.pdf)

Mr. Ngogo found out about our school’s Tanzania project accidentally through our website last spring. He contacted us right away, and we set up a meeting for the summer. In our meeting we decided to work hard together for our common goal to find available used computers, to organize their shipping, and finally to provide our friendship school with computers and the necessary expertise that is needed in order to be able to use the computers efficiently. Our goal is to send the computers to Mkapa High School during the school year 2008-2009.

Mr. Ngogo will visit our friendship school in Dar-es-Salaam in November. He will also contact the local Rotary Club which, together with the Rotary Club in Finland, might be able to help us with our project.

By Tiina Mustakangas

Bags arrived in Tanzania!

A while ago we received a message from Tanzania: the packages we sent to our partner school in Dar es Salaam had arrived. Let´s hope the items are of use.

Our own community, the town of Haukipudas, knows of our project as well since a local newspaper Rantapohja published an article of our cooperation. The Red Cross was also involved and covered a part of the postage costs.

Phase two of our campaign is already under way, too. Hopefully we are able to get a lot of donations to Mkapa High School. It will take a while, however, before there´s enough computers and money to take action and rent a container. We´ll try and keep the wheels turning...

- by Anja Moilanen