30 Year 5 & 6 pupils from The Danesfield Manor School had
a harsh lesson on 19th May, quickly realising that global trading is
deeply unfair!
The children
were broken down into 6 groups of three different countries representing
rich/emerging & poor countries of the world and tried to generate wealth
for their ‘countries’ by making paper shapes which had a currency they could
then bank. The poor countries had lots of raw materials (paper) but no
technology and the rich countries had all the technology but limited raw
materials. The rich countries quickly began manufacturing but were unwilling to
trade their technology for the raw materials they needed thereby ensuring the
poor countries remained poor.
The workshop evoked some wonderful thinking and comments
from the pupils...
"I learnt that not
all countries in the world are as fortunate as us - they have the resources but
not the technology.”
and,
"I learned how chocolate was made! More importantly
I found out how unfair life is for some and that one in seven people go to bed
hungry, it's shocking. It makes me want to god MAD but unfortunately I am just
one small boy in a big world. But it has made me understand how cruel the world
is for some."
A debrief following the game highlighted the plight of the cocoa farmers in Ghana and the fact that out of a £1 bar of chocolate, the farmers only receive 7p, with the rest going to the two Governments in tax, the manufacturers, and the retailers which the children thought was deeply unfair.
A powerful and thought provoking game for all concerned.
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