9 August 2009 | FXB South Africa Youth Forge partnership with California High School Students

A unique cross-cultural correspondence between high school students from Oakland, California and students in FXB South Africa’s After-School Program has given young people from opposite sides of the world a chance to share and learn from one another’s experiences.  This partnership was forged by Tara Asciutto, a World Cultures teacher at Oakland High School.  The project was conceived as a way to foster cultural understanding and raise awareness about AIDS, both locally and internationally, among her 10th grade students.  The project has grown in scope over the last five years, providing the teens in both South Africa and Oakland the opportunity to connect on a meaningful level and collaborate on a digital scale.

The project has expanded upon on the traditional pen-pal model, with youth on both sides communicating not only through written letters, but also thematic art, photography, and video exchanges.  Thanks to a recent teaching fellowship, Ms. Asciutto traveled to South Africa this July to help further strengthen the partnership.  She provided the After-School participants with a digital camera, software, and lessons on how to create digital photostories on themes in their lives including HIV, family, and school experiences.  Both Oakland and South African teens will collect oral histories from family and community members, take photographs, and write a narrative script.  These will then be transformed into a video to share with each other.

So far Ms. Asciutto has found the project beneficial to both groups of teenagers.  “The students are often surprised by the amount of shared experiences they have,” she says, “and the exchange also helps youth on both sides widen their world view and break down stereotypes”.

Read more about this exciting project on Tara’s blog at http://mamaafrica-taraasciutto.blogspot.com or contact FXB for information on how to help support the After-School Program.