About 100 elementary school students on the Coast stayed silent for an entire school day on April 28 as a way to “make a difference in the world.”
The students took pledges to keep quiet as part of a We are Silent campaign and then funnelled those pledges into worthwhile projects like feeding programs and emergency response efforts.
The We are Silent campaign is a global effort promoted by Me to We, the social enterprise that encourages kids to “transform local and global communities by shifting from ‘me’ thinking to ‘we’ acting.”
Me to We promotes the campaign because “issues like child labour, child soldiers and access to water and education drown out the voices of youth across the world.”
Through We are Silent, Me to We asks students to “take a vow of silence for a day to better understand what it’s like to have your voice go unheard.”
In addition to the vow of silence, students are encouraged to collect pledges to make an impact in an area of their choice.
Gibsons Elementary student Angelika Huibers took part and said that it was a very challenging but rewarding experience.
She noted that the two classes of students who participated at her school raised over $1,000 and they planned to donate half the funds to Oxfam and the other half to Me to We for their work in East Africa fighting famine.
“Millions of people need help to fight this. A child dies about every 10 minutes. About half a million children under the age of five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition,” Angelika wrote in a letter to Coast Reporter.
“You may ask how 54 everyday children from two different classes raised that much money. Well, we got pledges from family and friends. We’re trying to make a difference in the world, and you should too.”
Fellow student Kennedy Vanderwoerd also wrote to Coast Reporter about his experience, noting that silence can make a big impact.
“More people are interested in what Donald Trump is posting on Twitter than what is going on in the world,” Kennedy said.
“Around the world there are millions of starving people and no one notices until it is in the newspaper or on TV. We are trying to change that.”
He hopes that others will also take notice of the need in our world and “try to help make an impact.”
Find out more about Me to We and the We are Silent campaign at www.we.org
