The News From MGWS

Who would think adding two words to a famous phrase would make all the difference to kids in need.  Thanks to the World Ambassadors Club- millions of children in poverty will have a chance to survive. World Ambassadors Club, Mrs. Girouard’s and Mrs. Lindgren’s class raised $298.65 for Unicef this Halloween!

With all the donations from this campaign tens of millions of lives will be saved with clean water, good food and medicine.  Next year, we urge you to participate in trick or treat for Unicef.

Sincerely,

Cameron Morin &  the World Ambassadors Club

Ayuba Gufwan, a polio survivor & lawyer, from Jos, Nigeria was visiting the South Berwick home of Ann Hussey, chair of polio survivors and associates rotary action group. Ann just returned from Nigeria working to bring polio vaccines to the children of Nigeria and Ayuba came back with her to share his story in the states.  Seven out of ten children in Nigeria are not immunized against polio.  The work rotary does to eradicate polio is very important.

Ann and Ayuba were the guests of the World Ambassadors Club on April 17th.  Ayuba operates a bicycle wheelchair shop for survivors of polio in Nigeria.  Each wheelchair costs US$150. to produce- all raised with donations- and this changes the opportunities for the recipient in countless ways. Without a wheelchair, polio survivors must drag themselves along the ground -as their limbs do not function and rehabilitation is not available to them.  Each recipient of a wheelchair must attend school or work to learn a trade in exchange for a wheelchair.  This prevents a life of dependency and helplessness.  Ayuba does, indeed, walk on his hands though he did have a wheelchair here to use.  It was an extraordinary experience to hear his story of perseverance, ingenuity and courage.

While one might expect the halls to go quiet after dismissal time, at MGWS that is NOT the case!  Once classes end for the day then the after school activities begin.  

This afternoon nearly 150 students stayed after school to participate in a wide variety of activities:

~Play Practice (4th and 5th graders are preparing to perform Treasure Island)

~Team Handball (exercise – what a great way to end the day!)

~Hawk Challenge (here “tribes” are assigned the task of building a paper airplane)

~Math Club (a chance to work on math skills with Mrs. Conte)

~Newspaper (here students and teachers are making plans for the third edition)

~Learning Lab (an opportunity to get a head start on the night’s homework)

~World Ambassadors (seen here building schema for the book they are reading, Three Cups of Tea – a book about a man building peace in Pakistan through education)

MGWS is hopping with energy and opportunities!