Social Justice Book Resources_dec 2009

Social Justice Resources December , 2009

[email protected] Books of Interest Fiction and Non-fiction Title

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Chanda’s Secret

Allan Stratton

Chanda lives in the small city of Bonang, a fictional city in Southern Africa. When her youngest sister dies, the first hint of HIV/AIDS emerges. In this sensitive, swiftly paced story readers see how Chanda must confront undercurrents of shame and stigma. Not afraid to explore the horrific realities of AIDS, Chanda's Secrets also captures the enduring strength of loyalty, friendship and family ties. Above all, it is a story about the corrosive nature of secrets and the healing power of truth. Through the artful style of acclaimed author Stratton, the determination and resilience Chanda embodies will live on in readers' minds. *Teacher’s guide for the book available at www.annickpress.com

Chanda’s War

Allan Stratton

When her mother dies, Chanda promises to take care of her younger brother and sister at their home in the city. A recurring dream causes her to go visit her mother's estranged family in the village of Tiro, hoping to make amends. Instead, the headstrong Chanda deepens the rift when she refuses her families' plans of wedding her to their neighbor's son, Nelson. When rebels attack the village and steal all of the children as slaves, including Chanda's siblings, she dares to go and rescue them, with Nelson as her only help. Teaching guide available on author website. http://www.allanstratton.com/strattonyoungfic2.html

Debra Ellis books tend to relate to social justice issues – most have follow the life of a child in another country Heaven Deborah Binti's father and her mother before him, dies of AIDS. Binti, her sister, and brother are separated and sent to the home of relatives who can barely tolerate their presence. Shop Ellis Ostracized by their extended family, the orphans are treated like the lowest servants. Binti always believed she was special, now she is nothing but a common AIDS orphan. The Heaven Shop puts a very real face on the African AIDS pandemic, which to-date has orphaned more than 11 million African children. Inspired by a young radio performer the author met during her research visit to Malawi, Binti Phiri is a compelling character that readers will never forget. *Royalties donated to Unicef. I am a Taxi

Deborah Ellis

In Sacred Leaf, we follow Diego again as he is involved in disputes between local farmers and soldiers. It shows the struggle of families to strive for their basic needs such as food that comes into conflict with the politics of the country.

Sacred Leaf Deborah Ellis Breadwinn er

Mud City

Diego lives with his mother and sister in a Bolivian prison. To help support his family, he works as a ‘taxi’ running errands for other prisoners. In order to help his family more, he takes a job deep within the heard of the Bolivian jungle.

http://www2.ucdsb.on.ca/gec/Work%20Sheets/breadwinner.pdf provides a pdf file resource that teachers may use to enhance the understanding of the experiences in the book Parvana's father is arrested and taken away by the Taliban soldiers. Parvana, her mother, and sisters must stay inside. Four days later, the food runs out. So Parvana must pretend to be a boy to save her family. In fear she goes out - and witnesses the horror of land mines, and the brutality of the Taliban. But even in despair lies hope. Shauzia is Parvana's friend from The Breadwinner. Now Shauzia has fled from Afghanistan, to a refugee camp in Pakistan. But Shauzia has a dream. She dreams of getting away from the refugee camp and travelling to France. There she knows she would find a better life, away from the war in her home country of Afghanistan But

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Social Justice Resources December , 2009

[email protected] escape is not so easy. Once she leaves the camp, she has no money, no food - and only her dog Jasper for company. But Shauzia is determined to find a new future for herself This is another deeply moving story from Deborah Ellis, which casts light for readers on the ongoing human situation in Afghanistan. Parvana is alone. Her father is dead. A refugee in a land full of dangers, she must travel across Afghanistan to find her mother and sisters. As she travels, Parvana finds friends - a starving, orphaned baby; a strange, hostile boy; a solitary girl who darts in and out of the minefields to find food. Perhaps, with their help, she may one day be reunited with her family.

Parvana’s Journey

Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk About AIDS

Debra Ellis

Ellis has traveled to Malawi and Zambia to talk with children touched by AIDS. You’ll meet children who have been bounced from home to home and children who live on the street. You’ll meet children who work for every meal, children who are in jail, and children who nursed their dying parents and now care for younger siblings. And you’ll meet children like you – who love nothing better than to laugh and better than to laugh and hang out with their friends. Interspersed with facts about AIDS and quotes from authors and public figures, Our Stories, Our Songs is about the power of human spirit to endure and hope for a better tomorrow.

28 stories of AIDS in Africa

Stephani e Nolen

Canadian journalist, Nolen, brings us 28 stories of people fighting HIV/AIDS – one story for each million of the 28 million people living with the disease in sub-Saharan Africa today. The stories help us understand the enormous scope of the problem whether she is shadowing a doctor who treats AIDS in the middle of Congo’s brutal war, a 14 year old boy fending for himself in the slum streets of Addis Ababa, a HIVpositive nurse in Malawi, or talking to Nelson Mandela and his wife about his own son’s death from AIDS. The book could be used as a compilation or each individual story stands alone.

1 World Manga: Battling HIV/AIDS!

Story by Annette Roman Art by Leandro Ng Ink by Walden Wong Judd Winick (MTV’s Real World)

Fifteen year old orphan Rei survives by his wits and guts on the mean streets of the world. His fortunes seem to look up when he meets a stranger who offers to help him achieve his dream of becoming the greatest martial artist in the world…But Rei’s trainer is more interested in mind, spirt and heart than fighting moves. His journey takes him to the big city, where he meets guys with smooth moves and falls headover-heels for a feisty young cocktail waitress, who has a terrible family secret. *Graphic novel

Race Against Time

Stephen Lewis

Lewis bears witness to the desperate plight of so many in Africa and elsewhere by his unique, personal, and often searing insiders’s perspective on our ongoing failure to help. The United Nations Millennium Summit (2000) was to focus on fundamental goals such as education, health and cutting poverty by 2015. Lewis shows why and how the international community is falling short of these goals. Lewis probes the gap between vision and current reality. But he also offers attainable solutions to help us avoid what will otherwise be a terrible stain on the record of human achievement in the twenty-first century.

The Cow of No Colour

Nina Jaffe and Steve Zeitlin Ishmael Beah

This is a collection of 23 brief stories intended to make readers ask themselves: What would I do or say? What is fair or just? Each tale is told up to the point where a character makes a decision or takes action. This collection might appeal to teachers and counselors, religious educators, storytellers, and youngsters. Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a riveting story. At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle

Pedro and Me

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of

This story is a tribute to Pedro Zamora, an HIV-positive AIDS educator who appeared in MTV”S The Real World. He taught millions of viewers about being gay and living with AIDS. Judd Winick, a cartoonist, was Pedro’s roommate on the show. Pedro and Me is a book of words and pictures to honour Pedro. *Graphic novel

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Social Justice Resources December , 2009

[email protected] a Boy Soldier Far from Here Say You’re One of Them

boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. Eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity and to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion. This is, at last, a story of redemption and hope. Robert Munsch Uwem Akpan

The Cellist of Sarajevo

Stephen Gallowa y

Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir

Marina Nemat

To get a free download of a song inspired by the book, go to http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/features/sayyoureoneofthem/content/index.asp Akpan's stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. In the second of his stories published in a New Yorker special fiction issue, Akpan takes us far beyond what we thought we knew about the tribal conflict in Rwanda. The story is told by a young girl, who, with her little brother, witnesses the worst possible scenario between parents. They are asked to do the previously unimaginable in order to protect their children. This singular collection will also take the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa. The is the story of the cellist, Vedran Smailovic, who defied enemy snipers and mortar shells to play in the middle of a city street in Sarajevo every day at four o'clock for twenty-two days to honor twenty-two of his neighbors who were killed on that spot by mortar shells while waiting to buy bread. Galloway presents three different perspectives on the siege of that city - a young sniper assigned to defend the cellist, a father attempting to cross the city to get clean water for his family, and a bread-factory employee just trying to cross one of the more dangerous intersections to get to work. Each comes across the cellist and pauses as his unexpected music momentarily transports them to a better time. Then the reality of their impossible situation returns and they resume their struggle to survive. The cellist in this novel plays only a minor role, being primarily a device to link together the stories of all the characters as they try to deal with the bizarre reality in their own ways. Most Americans have some memory of the 444 days the world waited to see if Iranian revolutionaries would release 52 American hostages seized at the American Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. But to the Iranians who lived -- and loved -- through it, it was as if the world had gone mad. Books were frowned upon. Public displays of affection became a crime. Schoolchildren were arrested and held prisoner. Many were executed. In Prisoner of Tehran, Marina Nemat chronicles some of what it meant to come of age during this social upheaval.

Teacher Resources – Websites – Organizations www.commontheads.ca through OSSTF website

Common Threads is the name of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) International Solidarity Program. In collaboration with an international partner, the Common Threads team travels overseas and conducts research on a critical current topic. Upon returning, the team designs comprehensive “classroom ready” lesson plans in accordance with the Ontario Ministry of Education curriculum. Each project includes a program video, CD-ROM and supporting assessment rubrics. Course expectations are also included in the material, making it easier to select the appropriate courses.

http://bctf.ca/SocialJustice.aspx?

Programs/Resources Guatemala and Sweatshops South Africa and HIV/AIDS Bolivia and Safe Water Brazil and Food Security – should be out in about a year BC Teacher’s Federation

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Social Justice Resources December , 2009

[email protected] id=6218

http://www.bp208.ca/

http://www.warchild.ca/news.aspx

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This database allows you to choose grade levels, subject areas and themes in finding resources related to social justice • Themes include: basic needs, environment, gender equality, human rights, infrastructure services and private sector developments • Developed by BC teachers and supported by the federation and CIDA Butterfly 2008 (through the CIDA website) • Teacher Zone provides resources for HIV/AIDS and other classroom resources • Eg. Millennium Development Goals and Emily’s story (showing students their connection to the developing world) War Child • War Child Canada is a charity that provides urgently needed humanitarian assistance to war-affected children around the world. It also helps generate awareness, support and advocacy for children’s rights everywhere. • Keep the Beat is a group/school initiative which involves students playing music to raise money • The site also has stories and connections to resources.

http://www.msf.ca/en/index.html

Médecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) • MSF has been an organization that has spear-headed the campaign for cheaper drugs. • Provides pictures and letters of children living with AIDS share their stories. • Information and links to other programs and projects

http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.or g

Stephen Lewis Foundation • Grassroots newsletter • Information about Grandmother’s campaign and website

http://www.unaids.org/en/

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS • Recent press releases, news and statistics World Vision (Education and Justice) • Get Hungry Photo Challenge – where young Canadians add a photo-message of why they hunger for change for the government to fund development programs – a great project for students to investigate the issues and add their messages. • Issues of coverage include child poverty, HIV/AIDS and child soldiers • Many other resources available for download or purchase. A Closer Walk (A file about AIDS in the World/A Story about the Way the World Is) • A Closer Walk is about people everywhere acquiring knowledge about the realities of AIDS in the world, and then passing that knowledge along to others • A DVD is available to purchase for personal and/or educational use • There are also activities which include journals/stories about people affected or infected with HIV/AIDS in various countries including South Africa, Haiti, India and Uganda. Friends of the World Food Program • Shows the main causes for food crisis • Includes video clips (YouTube) providing visuals connecting the mains issues

http://www.worldvision.ca/Educationand-Justice/Pages/Education-andJustice.aspx

http://www.acloserwalk.org/

http://www.friendsofwfp.org/

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