Kids and giving go hand-in-hand

Ottawa Citizen
November 15, 2006
By Valerie Ward
Citizen advertising features

"Giving comes naturally to children," says Ketty Papadima. "It's their disposition to share."

She's witnessed the sharing up close. A teacher at Hopewell Public School's daycare since 2001, she has watched dozens of six- to 10-year-olds discover their capacity for giving through activities such as collecting pennies to end famine in Africa and making pink-ribbon brooches to raise money for breast cancer research.

"Their giving is very innocent, very pure," Ms. Papadima says. "The children get a lot of satisfaction from it. We have the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child posted in the room so they are quite familiar with their rights. They think: 'I'm lucky to have these rights. I want to help other children enjoy them, too.'

For one project, she and colleague Magda Chemielowska sparked interest by putting up a picture of a starving infant in drought-stricken Niger. The kids noticed it and began asking questions: Why was the child hungry? Why hadn't there been rain? Why is water so important? To raise relief money, the teachers asked the children to bring in a penny for each window in their house, each stair, bathroom, and so on, and then tally and roll the coins.

Using this approach, the children haved contributed to several African projects, including one in which (along with matching amounts from the
teachers) they donated enough to help Canadian Physicians Aid Relief plant 150 trees to reduce the cycles of drought and famine.

Activities that promote philanthropy are part of the school curriculum in Ontario. In the case of Hopewell, this focus is reinforced by the daycare's philosophy. "We're quite a political daycare," says Ms. Papadima. "We believe that anything we say or do will have an impact on the kids. It's not about charity - it's about social duty. We're trying to plant seeds for social responsibility."

Fostering social responsibility in 11- to 25-year-olds and engaging them in community improvement are the goals of the new Youth in Philanthropy initiative launched by the Community Foundation of Ottawa (CFO). Under the initiative, grants totalling more than $12,000 were awarded this year to nine projects that youth proposed, selected, and implemented. Projects included a leadership camp for Muslim youth, a social group for youth living with HIV/AIDS, a multi-cultural festival for a low-income neighbourhood in Ottawa, and a bilingual mobile display about African-Caribbean heritage for
exhibition in schools and community centres.

Through grant making, fund development, and community leadership activities, this program helped local youth build their skills, says Medin Admasu, the CFO's co- ordinator of youth programs. "The young people on our Youth Advisory Committee had to meet with members of the community, evaluate proposals, and plan and coordinate projects. They became more confident."

They also experienced first-hand the benefits of community involvement. "It's a wonderful feeling to know that we have made a difference in our community," says Joy Ding, a Youth Advisory Committee co-chair. "With continued effort, I think the program will make an even bigger impact. I hope that more youth will be lucky enough to be part of it and to leave their mark on the community."

© Ottawa Citizen 2006