No means No worldwide!

„…There is this special day, which they call "Very Special Day" where a man who is hired by the community comes to the camp and sleeps with the little girls. Imagine the trauma that these young girls go through every day. Most girls end up pregnant. They even contract HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. (…) On the other side, there is this girl. She's amazing. (Laughter) (Applause) I call her amazing because she is. She's very fabulous. That girl is me. (Laughter) When I was 13 years old, I was told, you are grown up, you have now reached of age, you're supposed to go to the initiation camp. I was like, "What? I'm not going to go to the initiation camps…“

Girls in Malawi and other African countries have to cope with a lot of problems. Memory Banda is a leading warrior for Girls´ Right and has given an inspirational speech at TED conference that gives you a good picture of the everyday situation of girls in Malawi:

http://www.ted.com/talks/memory_banda_a_warrior_s_cry_against_child_marriage/transcript?language=en

No means No – campaign

Good luck, that we meet Glory from the campaign „No means no worldwide“! The campaign fights for girls´ rights in Africa and is supported by unicef. „No means No“ is a campaign by the organization Ujamaa Pamodzi Africa and started in Kenya.

Link to the website of the campaign: http://nomeansnoworldwide.org/

No means No Malawi (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/nomeansnomalawi/timeline?ref=page_internal

I asked Glory in private, if they could also come to our school, even if we were not governmental. And they came!

We gathered all girls from Standard 4 up to Standard 8 in the school hall. The girls from No means No teached them first in theory about Girls´ Rights, Sexual Assault – later the girls got practical lessons in self-defence: real boxing and shouting and fighting! We all had fun and learned a lot!

I am shure if you contact them, they will help you out with materials or maybe come to your school.

Toothbrushing

Many children in the nursery had bad teeth and caries. They didn´t brush teeth at home. The parents were not aware of the importance of brushing teeth, especially not the first teeth that will fall out and be replaced anyway...

So we got each of them a toothbrush and buyed some tooth paste. We wrote the names of the learners on their brush and sticked them into a egg carton (It is better if the brushes don´t touch each other when you keep them, to avoid the spread of infections).

Out of to frisbees and some styropor I made a toothbrushing model and we explained them the most important points of toothbrushing:

• Brush in circles
• Brush each tooth in a circle
• Brush the top teeth and the bottom teeth
• Brush the inside and outside of the teeth
• Brush the chewing surface
• Brush every morning when you get up and every evening when you go to bed

Every day when we dissolved the morning circle, we marched to our tooth-brushing place outside of the nursery hall. Marching  to that place, we sung the toothbrushing song. We stood in a circle around our purple bucket that had a tub. The teachers distributed the toothbrushes and toothpaste. For hygenical reasons, please do not put the toothpaste directly from the tub to the brushes, but make little paste pies on a plate first and take the paste from there with your brush. When every child had got toothbrush and toothpaste, the children started brushing. The teachers helped a little, if child needed help. Most important was to remember them to "spit out!" when they already got tears in their eyes because their mouths were full of saliva.

Toothbrushing – Song

Brush brush brush your teeth

Brush brush brush your teeth

Brush brush brush your teeth

Everyday!

Brush the top teeth,

Brush the bottom teeth.

Brush the front teeth,

Brush the back teeth.

Brush brush brush your teeth

Brush brush brush your teeth

Brush brush brush your teeth

Everyday!

I have a little toothbrush

I have a little toothbrush

I hold it very tight

I brush my teeth each morning

And then again at night.

Toothbrushing-Story

This picture is part of a toothbrushing-story that I have written and illustrated myself. You can see all 7 pictures here: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnx2b2x1bnRlZXJ0cnlpbmd0b3RlYWNofGd4OjRhMzMzM2I5NTVkOGEyOGE

I also have high-quality scans of the pictures that are too big to upload them, but that I can send you on a CD for free if you contact me (elena.ziegler.ruiz@googlemail.com).

The story of Tsogolo and the Caries-Monsters exists in English and in Chichewa. We had a meeting with the parents in the nursery in which we informed them about the importance of toothbrushing. We read aloud the story and the informational sheets and gave them Chichewa handouts. The parents were very interested!

If you are interested, please follow these links:

Story Tsogolo and the Caries-Monsters: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnx2b2x1bnRlZXJ0cnlpbmd0b3RlYWNofGd4OjQyYmM0OTgyN2ExZTJlNDI

Story handout in Chichewa: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnx2b2x1bnRlZXJ0cnlpbmd0b3RlYWNofGd4OjdiYTA2ZmQzNzgxNTdhNzc

Information for parents English version: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnx2b2x1bnRlZXJ0cnlpbmd0b3RlYWNofGd4OjMyMjVmM2RjZjBiMDQxMzE

Information for parents Chichewa version: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnx2b2x1bnRlZXJ0cnlpbmd0b3RlYWNofGd4OjEwYTQ1NGFkNmVkYzE5MTY

Handwashing

[For handwashing and toothbrushing, we invested in a purple plastic bucket with a tub. In Malawi, you could buy them in every plastic store.]

6 Steps of handwashing

with gestures!

1) Palm to palm

2) Back of hands

3) Thumbs –

another thumb

4) Wrists –

another wrist

5) Spaces between fingers

6) Aaaand?! (Children know the answer)

Fingernails! (Chichewa: Zikhadabo!)

Handwashing-Song

tune: Wheels on the bus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vrQA-DTp0g

with gestures!

The soap on our hands goes squirt squart squirt (soap your hands)

squirt squart squirt

squirt squart squirt

The soap on our hands goes squirt squart squirt

As we wash our hands!

The germs on our hands go ieh ieh ieh (shrug disgusted your shoulders)

ieh ieh ieh

ieh ieh ieh

The germs on our hands go ieh ieh ieh

As we wash our hands!

The water on our hands goes swish swash swish (wipe your hands)

swish swash swish

swish swash swish

The water on our hands goes swish swash swish

As we wash our hands!

The towel on our hands goes rub dub dub (clap your hands turning them up and down)

rub dub dub

rub dub dub

The towel on our hands goes rub dub dub

As we wash our hands!

(stretch your hands to the front, inside the circle so that everone can see them)

Look, our hands are squeeky clean

squeeky clean, squeeky clean

Look, our hands are squeeky clean

Because we washed our hands!

Growing up

(1) Body Changes

group work activity

1. I divide the group by gender: One girls group, one boys group. Each group receives a poster. On the poster we can see the bodies of a girl and a boy.

 

2. Compare the posters. We can distinguish a young girl and a young boy by the sexual organs – vagina and penis. But apart from that, their bodies look very similar. They are still young. The bodies of grown-up women and men do not look that similar anymore: When we grow up, we experience changes on our bodies – girls and boys develop different characteristics, and some changes are also the same.

3. Task for the groups: Please sketch in with a red marker the changes that one experienes on his or her body when he or she grows up.

4. Let´s talk about our work. Boys/Girls, can you show us your poster?

My learners were to shy to draw in all of the changes, so I took the red marker and had them watching me doing the job without mercy.

5. Let´s compare our work. What body changes are the same on our posters?

6. We note down a table chart:

Body changes during adolescence

BOYS	BOTH	GIRLS
Broadening of shoulders Enlargement of penis and testes wet dreams growing of a beard Deepening of voice	pimples on the face growing of pubic hair and armpit hair sweat/perspiration, body odour becomes stronger	Hips getting wider and more round Breasts begin to grow Beginning of menstruation (bleeding about every 4th week because of a hormonal cycle)

(2) The mysterious pink jumbo bag

"Today I have brought you my mysterious pink jumbo bag! Now I need a brave volunteer… Who wants to come in front and pick something out of my pink jumbo bag?

I want to make shure that you don’t see what you chose, so we will cover your eyes. Now put your hand into the mysterious pink jumbo bag and grab something. Show it to the class. Look at it. What is it? Can you tell me what the use of it is? What can we use it for? What does this have to do with body changes during adolescence?"

Useful thing	Use
Cleaning soap	To fight pimples
Deodorant	To fight the smell of strong sweat (my learners were very delighted that I allowed each of them to try out a little spray)
Razor blade	To shave beard, pubic and armpit hair
Sanitary towel	Used to catch the blood during menstruation
Condom	Adolescents develop interest in sex. Protect yourself against various infections (HIV is only one example) and prevent an unwanted pregnancy.

Cells and Micro-organisms

Context
LIFE SKILLS// SCIENCE
In both subjects I often had to use the terms "micro-organisms", "germs", "bacteria" or "virus". The learners kept asking me "Madam, what is a micro-organism?". I was really unhappy with the quick answer "some very small creatures that make you sick". That´s why I dedicated an extra lesson to the topic. The 
classteacher was surprised, but happy about that lesson.

Jokers of interest
poster
drawing tasks (my learners loved drawing)
model of a cell

Materials
poster
Plasmodium-book from a Clinic, if possible

Model of a cell made of:

• a pumpkin shell to make the plasma membrane/body of the cell
• the inner stone of an avocado to make the nucleus

1)      Cells

• All living beings (= organisms) are made up of cells: humans, animals and plants
• 1 adult person consists of 100 000 000 000 000 cells
• Cells are usually between ten and a hundred micrometers long (1 millimetre = 1000 micrometers)
• Structure of cells:
• Cell- or plasma membrane around it controls what passes into and out of the cell
• cytoplasm is a watery jelly
• the nucleus controls what goes on in the cell and it also carries the nucleic acid (DNA) - the architect´s plan to make new cells
• every second, 50 Million of cells die in our body and have to be produced new
• different types of cells have different functions and jobs in our body and they have a different lifetime: the cells on our lips live 2 weeks, then die; but the cells in our bones can survive 30 years!

suggested extra-Activities:

If available, let the learners have a look through the microscope at the cells of an onion skin. (I brought a microscope from home). Or else, look some pictures of cells up in the interent and show the learners on your laptop.

2)      Bacteria, for example yoghurt, typhoid, cholera

o       bacteria are very simple organisms, made up of only one cell!

o       They don´t even have a nucleus, the nucleic acid (architect´s plan) is just spread throughout the cell

o       There are three basic shapes of bacteria:

o       Balls or spheres

o       Rods

o       Spirals or cork-screw shaped cells

o       bacteria can be linked together to form chains or clumps

o       some bacteria are able to move using whip-like structures called flagella

• Bacteria are found in/on almost everything: millions of them in the air, on our skin, in our bodies, in our food – most of them are harmless
• Bacteria can be grown or cultured on special food (like yoghurt) or in the laboratory in culture media
• Some bacteria can do us harm, they can be passed in the air or water or by one person touching another
• When a person sneezes or coughs their mouth should be covered
• If the faeces of an infected person are not disposed properly then the bacteria may spread to drinking water, a person drinking infected water will then pick up the disease (cholera!)

3)      Fungi

• Fungi include the yeasts (Hefe) which are used in brewing beer and making bread

4)      Plasmodium

In Malawi, Malaria is the most common disease. The Clinic laboratorys have some books with microscope-photographies of Plasmodia, which they use to compare when they analyse Malaria blood tests. I asked the nearest Clinic to borrow me one of this books for my lesson. They had no problem at all with it!

• Plasmodium are the micro-organisms that spread Malaria
• Also made up of only one cell, but this ones have their architect´s plan packed in a nucleus

5)      Viruses, for example Ebola

• Made up of nucleic acid, surrounded by a coat made of protein
• Can only live inside other (host) cells, cause disease and death in animals, plants and even bacteria – scientist cannot agree if they are living beeings or not!
• Only the centre part (nucleic acid) is passed into a new cell, once inside a cell it is quickly reproduced to give more viruses, a protein coat is developed around each new virus – after a while the cell dies and the viruses are released
• Some viruses attack only certain cells in the body of an organism

Drawing tasks:

• Copy an animal cell from the board into your exercise book – headline: “this is the material that I´m made of”
• Draw things made of cells (=humans, animals, plants)
• Draw a bacteria (copy from the poster)
• Draw a virus