New South Wales
Country Areas Program
Projects That Really Make a Difference!

Project Title: Hands Across the Water
Type: Moree District Initiative
Coordinator/s: Ms Sandy Ellis
Participating Schools: Yetman PS, Bonshaw PS, Delungra PS, North Star PS, Gum Flat PS
Attributes Addressed: Self, Communication, Global Awareness and Responsibility, Literacy

Overview:

All of the participating schools are in largely mono-cultural communities with little access to multi-cultural experiences. Teaching staff have limited access to training and development in studies in other cultures. Often the community as a whole has had limited experience with other cultures. As racial stereotyping and lack of knowledge sometimes can create mistrust and misunderstanding of other cultural groups, this initiative seeks to address these issues by providing the opportunity for students to gain experience of other races and cultures. It is important to enhance students' understanding of Australia as a multi&emdash;cultural society.

Implementation:

The strategy will include the following components:

* bringing students together for a day to raise their awareness of other cultures

* exposing students to the food, music, artefacts and culture of other cultural groups

* it will be expected that students participate in a study of another cultural group prior to, or following, the awareness&emdash;raising day

* for some students, whose communities are involved with the Country Women's Association's International Day, the focus country could be that studied by the CWA this year

* for schools involved in Access Asia, an Asian country as a focus country would be appropriate

* cultural groups will be approached to provide a display or performance on the day

• the Australian/Indonesian Association
• Armidale International Students' Association
• the Fortitude Valley (Qld) Progress Group

* students will be involved in producing units of work which will be displayed during the day. Some of these units will be multi-media in form. The possibility of sharing these via the internet will be considered.

* CAP funding will allow transport costs to be met for visiting cultural groups and visiting schools. Students will pay a fee for the multi-cultural lunch

A project of this nature requires a commitment of more than one year. The timeline for the current year is:

Term 1 Cultural groups and CWA approached for participation
Term 2 Schools to nominate country to study
Term 3 Multi&emdash;cultural Day to be held in Education Week
Term 4 Evaluation and planning for the Year 2000