Defining the content and presentation of the lessons on Development Education conducted by Project for People in Italian schools
Development of a communication campaign addressed to children, since they are the direct aim of the project. Thanks to direct experience, we decided to adopt a participative method, focusing on two other main points: the use of repetition as a teaching method and the involvement of volunteers as communication promoters. Starting from these fundamental points, we laid the foundation for the design of three projects related to the action we wanted to promote: washing hands. The projects are connected with the aim of adding experience to the mere information.
The message is conveyed in three moments: the first project, conceived to be the starting point of the repetition method, focuses on the volunteer as a teacher using the lecture method. The first phase takes place in the classroom, where children are taught about the new habit: washing hands. This action is explained with three posters which illustrate the different actions that they have to do, and a fourth one which shows the key moments when to wash hands: before eating and after going to the toilet. The communication involves three actors: the children, the volunteers, and the teachers. For each of them the message has been translated into a different language: into English for the volunteers, into Bengali for the teachers and into images for children.
During the second phase children become more involved: they are taken to the water pump of the school and they are shown how to wash their hands. Moreover, to be more effective a panel with the same information is hanged on the wall. Conceived to be permanent so that anyone can read it when entering the school, it focuses on images to ensure that it is understood by the majority of people.
The last phase aims at conceiving the message also into villages, flexible so that all the NGOs can afford it, with, in addition, information for the parents about the use of ashes instead of soap.
PROJECT LEADER: Alice Brovelli
SIT COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP: SITMilano
PROJECT TYPE: Advocacy Project
MAIN BENEFICIARIES: Italian schools and schools in developing countries
AREAS: Design, Communication, Education
COUNTRIES: Italy, Developing Countries
STATUS: Ended
