April 14, 2014
The following statement was read today in the House of Assembly by the Honourable Clyde Jackman, Minister of Education:
We Act Partnership Supports Community Service at Home and Abroad
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to talk about this past Friday’s national launch of the cross-country We Create Change Tour in St. John’s, which was attended by more than 800 students from around the province and webcast live to thousands more.
The We Create Change Tour is organized by the international charity and educational partner, Free The Children. You may be familiar with Free The Children as an organization founded by 12-year-old Craig Kielburger in 1995 to fight child labour. Today, Free The Children has more than 2.3 million youth members focused on ground-breaking education and development programs. The organization has, in fact, built more than 650 schools in developing countries, enabling 55,000 children to attend classes where they otherwise would not.
Mr. Speaker, I think we sometimes forget how fortunate we are to live in a country, and a province, which provides educational opportunities that most children in the world can only dream about. That is why we were pleased to share the launch of the We Create Change Tour with thousands of our students. It is also why I announced on Friday that the Department of Education is partnering with Free The Children to introduce We Act, a school program which encourages community service at home and abroad.
The We Act program supports the ideals of the province’s Safe and Caring Schools initiative, Mr. Speaker, and complements our efforts to establish caring school communities. For example, as part of We Act, schools commit to taking action on at least one local and one global initiative of their choice during the school year. But Mr. Speaker, it is also about instilling a sense of positive activism and social justice in our youth. It’s about learning that one person can make a difference in their community. One person can effect positive change. And working together, we can make the world a better place.
I believe that, Mr. Speaker. And I believe the We Act program will enhance the existing character education and citizenship education programming in our schools, and encourage more development of personal qualities such as leadership, responsibility, honesty, fairness, and the ability to see past ourselves for a greater good.
2014 04 14 1:45 p.m.