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2010 - Kate Galiani - Grade 7 English Teacher - Peru

In the summer of 2010, Kate will spend two weeks in Lima, Peru working as a volunteer with the organization, Cross-Cultural Solutions. During her trip, Kate will teach conversational English in the local elementary and secondary schools.

2009 - Beth Ramaley - Grade 1 Teacher - Peru

Beth spent three weeks in Chimbote, Peru working as a volunteer with the Incarnate Word Missionaries. During her trip, she used her Stanwich School experience to perform speech, reading and writing evaluations with school age children.

In addition, Ramaley worked with handicapped children and adults, as well as visited hospice patients and orphaned children. “I knew this experience was going to be mindopening, but I never expected to walk away with such a sense of joy knowing how much of an impact I made in such a short time.”

2008

In honor of the school’s 10th anniversary, the Board awarded two grants to different faculty members, each of whom had proposed trips to Rwanda.

2008 - Elizabeth Crawford, Primary House Music and Drama Teacher - Rwanda

For Stanwich teacher Elizabeth Crawford, a trip to Rwanda was the culmination of a dream to travel to Africa to teach elementary-age children. Crawford spent two weeks at the Kaguga School in Rwanda, a school of 3,300 students in grades 1 to 6.

Through the International Education Exchange, non-profit organization aimed at improving the primary education system in Rwanda through four initiatives: Teacher Training Program, Pen Pal Program, Social Enterprise Initiative, and Infrastructure Assessment, Crawford taught English, music and dance at the Kaguga School.

“The children love to greet and touch you. They just want to be close to you,” said Crawford. “The highlight of my trip was getting to meet the child that I sponsor through World Vision. I instantly knew it was her when I saw her wearing the green flip-flops that I had mailed to her. It was a special moment.”

With funds from a Stanwich School fundraiser, Crawford was able to donate instruments and a sound system to the school, where 20 percent of children are the heads of their household because their parents were killed in the Rwandan genocide.

 

2008 - Shaun Fletcher, Junior House Science Teacher - Rwanda

When Stanwich School science teacher Shuan Fletcher travled to Rwanda in the summer of 2008 he was on a quest — he was searching for a community with needs that Stanwich could support on a long-term basis. And he found what he was looking for in Cyabatanzit, a rural Rwandan community, and Project Blessing was born. Project Blessing, so named because its work will be a “blessing” to the men, women and children of the village – as a multi-phase project with limitless opportunities.

The 10-year project includes drilling and installing a fresh water well as well as the construction of various buildings, such as a kindergarten room with a full kitchen, a library, medical center, P1-P6 primary classrooms, and full bathrooms complete with showers and a laundry room. A critical aspect of the project is the creation of a water system, a waste management system and an irrigation system in order to support a community-led fruit and vegetable farm.

Thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Stanwich community, a freshwater well was dug, and Fletcher hopes to continue building a each year. “We have to be very sensitive to change in these communities,” he said. “The change has to be slow and it has to be with the villagers involved in order for it to be a long-term success.”

2007 - Jane Graham, Art Teacher - Ghana

Stanwich School art teacher Jane Graham spent three weeks in the summer of 2007 teaching children in Ghana, a coastal country in western Africa, but she needed less than a day to feel at home.

"I felt completely welcomed from that very first day," said Graham.

Thanks to the school's new Board of Trustees' Humanitarian Grant, Graham was sponsored to travel with the Global Volunteers organization to teach English and arts and crafts to middle school children. Graham was sent in late July with supplies donated by Stanwich's Intermediate House students.

Graham taught a class of 45 teenagers, "a rather daunting thing," but she said teh experience was unforgettable.

"The kids were so enthusiastic and so eager to learn. It's inspiring because they have to work so hard with so little ... They had this whole separate life they had to take care of," Graham said.

Graham said she didn't know much about Ghana before she went, but has since come to appreciate the country, which has a population of about 23 million.

"I love the community spirit," Graham said.

While in Africa, Graham came across “Global Mamma’s” a fair trade organization in Cape Coast, Rwanda – area size of Oregon with 21 million people. Graham stopped in a store that sells Batik prints made by local artists last year and was compelled to return to Rwanda to work with local woman making Batik fabrics.

In the summer of 2008, Graham helped to design patterns that were used to make fabric for clothing and tablecloths. "I was wearing a dress from Target, and the women there produced a duplicate with fabric they created," Graham said.