16th November, TOLERANCE DAY

Sadako and the thousand cranes

Japanese Origami Technic gave us the idea on how to celebrate Tolerance Day at our school. There is the story of a little girl name Sadako Sasaki who lived in Hiroshima at the time of the atomic bombing by the United States. She developed leukemia from the radiation and spent her time in a nursing home creating origami (folded paper) cranes in hope of making a thousand of them. She was inspired to do so by the Japanese legend that one who created a thousand origami cranes would then be granted a wish. Her wish was simply to live. However, she managed to fold only 644 (356 to go) cranes before she became too weak to fold any more, and died shortly after. Her friends and family helped finish her dream by folding the rest of the cranes, which were buried with Sadako. They also built a statue of Sadako holding a giant golden origami crane in Hiroshima Peace Park.

Now every year on Obon Day, which is a holiday in Japan to remember the departed spirits of one's ancestors, thousands of people leave paper cranes near the statue. On the statue is a plaque: "This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace on Earth."

A thousand paper cranes are traditionally given as a wedding gift by the father, who is wishing a thousand years of happiness and prosperity upon the couple. They can also be gifted to a new baby for long life and good luck. Hanging a Senbazuru in one's home is thought to be a powerfully lucky and benevolent charm.

In Western countries, the custom has been extended from giving a senbazuru to cancer patients, to using them at funerals or on the grave. Specially significant is the one in Saint Paul's Church near Cero Zone in New York. Here's a photograph of it.

So, origami cranes are a symbol of Peace all over the world. Peace and Tolerance are so united that we celebrate both when we celebrate only one of them. 

We ask all our students to make origami figures and write a message in it, about Tolerance and Peace. We hang them all in our the entrance hall.

4th Visit - Belgium

We begin our second year with the project with a new visit to our partner school in Belgium. This time, the Spanish team if formed by four students (Camila Godoy, Claudia García, Claudia Cobos and Cathaysa González) and three teachers (María Antuña, José Ángel Martínez and Sandra Reyes).

On our first day students attend some classes while teachers have our meeting. After lunch, we watch  a series of documentary films made by Fabio Wuytack about the differences concerning tolerance. 

On Wednesday, we go to Brussels, capial city of Belgium. We visit the European Parliament and do some city sightseeing on walk after that.

On Thursday we visit some of the most important I World War sites in Belgium, including some trenches.

In the afternoon we visit Tyne Cot Passendale the biggest English war Cemetery of Europe. Our Polish partners lit some candles there. It was quite moving and emotional, as well as our visit to "In Flanders Fields" Museum in Ieper.

On Friday students attend some lessons while teachers have our second meeting concerning our Comenius project website, created by two Belgian students. They have done a very good job!

We finish our week there with a very interesting workshop about Mandalas.

Another wonderful week abroad!

First and Second Commandments of Tolerance

Little by little, bit by bit, we're making our list of Commandments. Here are the first two:

First Commandment: You should give disabled people the right to contribute to society by appreciating their own abilities.
Second Commandment:  You should not isolate, but include disabled people.

3rd visit: Finland

Our visit to Finland took place from 9th to 13th May. Fortunately, the weather was really good at that time. Our team was formed by two students: Marta Roldán and Alba Rodríguez; and three teachers: Rosa del Rosario, Victoria Castro and Sandra Reyes.
In Finland we visit Korpilahti Secondary School, a smaller school than ours but full equiped as you can see in the photographs.

A curiosity in this school is that everybody wears indoor shoes or socks. Our students also! They leave their things in lockers. Can you imagine that in our school?

That morning we also visited Korpilahti Activity Center, where disabled people work and stay a few hours during the day. They were very friendly and showed us some of the things they build there.

In the afternoon students attended some classes and teachers had our first meeting. After that a rowing trip in Lake Päijänne for teachers and some socializing for students. Note please who's doing the hard work here!

                            
On Wednesday we lived one of the most funny and enriched experiences regarding disability. We visited Hippos Sports Center in Jyväskylä. There they work with circus techniques and the idea that everybody is good at something. We practiced a lot and then showed all the others.

After lunch we visited Jyväskylä University and the Niilo Mäki Institute, which is specialized on the research of learning disabilities.

In the afternoon we visited Gloria Multicultural Centre. They do a great job helping people from all over the world.

On Thursday we visited the Jyväskylä School for the Visually Impaired. 

After lunch students went to play some bowling and wall climbing and teachers visited the Savutuvan Apaja (a “village” of historical farm buildings from Central Finland).

 On Friday, students attended some classes while teachers had our second meeting. In the evening, we had a farewell typical dinner at Harald Restaurant with a concert by one of the teachers and her group. It was a wonderful week!

Questionnaire on disabled people

Here you can see the results of our school relating this questionnaire about disability. It's also an opportunity to surf our website again!
http://www.ttcot.eu/event.php?id=7