Ways to Participate in the Passport Project

There are a number of ways to incorporate the Passport Project and international humanitarian education into your classroom curriculum. Below are some ways that schools have participated.

1. Establish an American Red Cross Club at your school. You can then work closely with the Red Cross to include the Passport Project and international education in the club curriculum.

2. Pick a country that has relevance to you, your class, or your curriculum, and simply correspond via email or snail mail to learn about and get to know students in the country you choose. Again, the American Red Cross will assist in establishing relationship with a school or community in the chosen country.

3. Adopt a three-fold approach. This includes first choosing the country(ies) of interest to your class or curriculum (i.e. if you are a Spanish teacher, pick a Spanish-speaking country). Begin exploring the country with your students, learning about the population, religion, culture, etc. As the students gain a greater understanding of the region, the Red Cross will connect you with a school or sister Red Cross chapter to allow the students to begin composing letters to their peers. At this point, a member of the American Red Cross can come to your school to discuss the social conditions and humanitarian issues of the country as they pertain to adolescents, using the "Rights of a Child" as a foundational element to the presentation. Once a reveiw of children's issues is covered, then it is time to design a service-learning project for the partner school. This could be writing letters and creating a banner for a school that relates to pertinent issues facing the country (i.e. participating in the Measles Initiative if your partner school is among the countries in need of measles vaccinations). You might also consider something creative like compiling recipes from the country you're connected with for the children to keep as "souvenoirs" of the country study. Or, when you engage in the discussion of humanitarian concerns and the Rights of a Child, children can choose one right (i.e. the right of a child to receive proper education) to promote with their partner school, perhaps by collecting school supplies to send.

The sky's the limit. There are countless ways to integrate an international element into the classroom. As you begin to brainstorm, just remember that the American Red Cross is happy to work with you and your school to cater to your individual classroom needs.