Model Programs

Peace Villages in North Korea

Service For Peace was able to conduct a unique house-building program in cooperation with the North Korean government, overcoming a lot of restrictions that one can come across entering in North Korea.

The program started as making hundreds of briquette-burning furnaces which solved the dual problems of the bone-chilling North Korean winters and the deforestation that has resulted from the widespread gathering of firewood.

Gradually, SFP’s work expanded into the realm of house building. The most remarkable feature of the new houses is that they were built by North and South Korean volunteers working side by side, a sight that has been rarely seen in the past 50 years. Lee In Bong who recently participated in a ceremony for  the occasion of completing the construction 40 houses , said, “Ever since I heard the news of this project of building houses together with North Korean residents, I myself wanted to participate. I felt that North Korean people are as familiar as my family and found there were no differences between South and North Korean people.” There are 104 houses that are still under construction.

So far, Service For Peace has supplied 1550 briquet boilers and supplied 140 houses with heating systems. Also, more than 600 volunteers have participated in service activities together with North Korean people. This year, Service For Peace is expanding the program to two more areas.

                                  

                       

A ceremony to mark the completion of 40 houses with heating system



Health Education for Cambodian Children

 

Demonstarting the value of a mosquito net

 

   

The Model School Program

Creating model elementary schools as centers for community development

 

Definition

A model elementary school is one which effectively caters to the intellectual, social, emotional, moral, and physical developmental needs of all of the children in the community in which it is located. 

 

What Exactly Does Service For Peace Do?

SFP involves college and high school students in voluntary service programs designed to increase international cooperation and to break the cycle of poverty in nations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. We form strategic alliances with colleges, schools, government ministries, NGOs and businesses to provide experiential learning and training in leadership development and community development with a focus on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

We identify rural communities in which we offer a comprehensive package of interventions to help these villages to emerge from extreme poverty. In particular, we focus on improving and expanding the facilities of elementary schools. In addition, we work with our partners to provide assistance and education in the areas of agriculture, nutrition and health, economics, energy, water, environment and information technology. The newly improved elementary school is used as a community center for these educational programs.

Program Goals

• Improve and expand elementary education in the selected communities.
• Alleviate the effects of poverty in the selected communities.
• Present an effective model of how the Millennium Development Goals can be addressed.
• Involve high school and university students in ongoing service that addresses community needs.
• Inspire a new generation of social entrepreneurs

 

Why Elementary Education?

Universal elementary education is Goal #2 of the eight Millennium Development Goals developed by the United Nations in 2000. Without a literate population, it is extremely difficult to address the other development goals. Information on health and nutrition, for example, cannot easily be disseminated to large numbers of people unless most, if not all, are able to read. It is therefore essential to the development of a community that its residents should be able to read and write. That training begins in elementary school. 

 

Origins

SFP’s model school program was launched in the Dominican Republic in 2005. SFP signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education of the DR to create a model elementary school as a pilot project that would be duplicated in other communities in subsequent years.

 

After identifying a suitable community and school about an hour outside the capital of Santo Domingo, SFP staff members met with the community leaders in the village of Frasquito Gomez to assess needs and priorities and to explain SFP’s purpose and plans.  SFP then launched an international service project to renovate and improve the village’s elementary school. U.S. and Dominican students worked side by side on the school buildings.

 

In rural communities, the school is the one institution in which just about everyone has an interest. When the school is renovated with the goal of creating a “model” school, it immediately draws community interest and involvement and promises a better future for the children of the community.

 

* The international project is a very important step in attracting the interest of local participants and partners.

 

During the course of the international program, experts in the fields of health, agriculture, and sanitation were invited to visit the village to discuss and implement ways in which these issues could be addressed and improved. The Ministry of Agriculture has continued to work with the community ever since.

 

When the school was fully renovated, it could be used as a community center. A pilot adult literacy program was then launched at the school involving 30 members of the local community. A member of the El Baden teaching staff went through a three-day training program (conducted by representatives of the First Lady’s office) and served as the literacy instructor.

 

Why Adult Literacy?

We know from our discussions with school directors that adult literacy is very important to the development of the elementary schools. If the parents can't read, then they can't read books to their children, can't help their children with schoolwork and can't provide an example of the value of education. The cycle of illiteracy therefore continues.

 

Also, literacy is a key to development. It is impossible to communicate effectively with millions of people on the subjects of health, HIV-AIDS, agriculture etc if the people cannot read.

 

The Model School Program and the Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals summarize the development goals agreed at international conferences and world summits during the 1990s. At the end of the decade, world leaders distilled the key goals and targets into the 'Millennium Declaration,' which was issued by the United Nations in September 2000.

Based on the declaration, a concise set of goals and targets was developed by the United Nations, the World Bank and others. The resulting document, known as the Millennium Development Goals, includes eight goals, 18 targets and over 40 indicators.

The Millennium Development Goals, to be achieved by 2015, include:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development. 

The Model School Program is a response to GOAL 2:

Achieve Universal Primary Education

The UN’s explanation of this goal reads as follows: “Every human being should have the opportunity to make a better life for themselves. Unfortunately, too many children in the world today grow up without this chance, because they are denied their basic right to even attend primary school. A sustainable end to world poverty as we know it, as well as the path to peace and security, require that citizens in every country are empowered to make positive choices and provide for themselves and their families. This can only be achieved if all the children of the world are given the chance to learn in a high-quality schooling environment at least through primary school.”

In our world today:

• 115 million school-aged children are not in school-56 percent of them girls and 94 percent of them in developing countries.
• 133 million young people cannot read or write.
• Only 37 of 155 developing countries have achieved universal primary school completion.