Africa: Communities In Action

Country Available: Canada, USA

"To absorb the material is to be immersed in every facet of African life, presented with mesmerizing clarity, the buoyant and the painful in equal measure. History, poverty, development, gender, culture ... they're all addressed so thoughtfully, with such a range of examples, that every teacher, every student will be drawn to the project of learning. It's hard to heap sufficient praise... it's an astonishing achievement."
...Stephen Lewis Professor in Global Health,Faculty of Social Sciences McMaster University Former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa International Trade.

This documentary highlights the WARD, or West African Rural Development project that brings Canadian educators together with Gambians to help train community development practitioners. We meet the Canadian community educators and are invited into the lives of the Gambian community development practitioners as they take on responsibility for their community. We witness the work and the changes in villages and the surrounding rural areas.

Created to supplement the use of the DVD documentary, a comprehensive, 362 page handbook (for convenience, in printable CD form) is comprised of more than 40 classroom-tested, hands on student activities, key background readings, and information on Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Canadian aid priorities, as well as maps, inquiry- based instructional strategies and annotated listings of supplementary resources. 2008

Included in the handbook are the following units:
Historical and Cultural Context:
Introduction to Colonialism and Modern African History; "The Conspiracy Against Africa"; The Gambia: An African Microcosm; Maps and Geography of Africa
Development: Glossary of Development Terms; Defining Development; Theories of Development; Thinking About Development; Sustainable Development
Poverty: Defining Poverty; Measuring Poverty; Poverty and the Big Five; Causes of Poverty - Opposing Views; Unequal Slices
Economics: The Chain Game; International Trade; Fair Trade; Sustainable Development
Culture: Defining Culture; What is Canadian Culture?; Looking at West African Lives; Building on Cultural Strengths; Working Effectively in Rural Areas
Human Development: Defining Human Development; The Purpose of Literacy; The Social Context of Literacy; Life Expectancy; Disease and Its Impact on Africa; The Impact of Malaria; The HIV/ AIDS Pandemic; GDP per Capital - Economics
Gender and Development: Why Gender? Occupations Over Time; Take a Stand on Sex and Gender; All in a Day's Work; Gender and Development Case Studies
Aid and Development Assistance: About Aid; Does Aid Matter?; Non-Governmental Organizations and Development Assistance; UN Millennium Development Goals; CIDA and Development Aid

Instructional Guide ©2008, SD# 83 (North Okanagan-Shuswap);
The gambia: Communities in Action © Knowledge Network, 2005.
This material was produced with the support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) as part of their Global Classroom Initiative Program.

View a printer friendly version of this page...Copyright Date: 2005/2008 Length: 26 minutes Formats Available:

DVD