Humans were once on track to destroy Earth’s ozone shield. Collective action averted disaster. Global warming demands the same global cooperation. We’re all frustrated at the inability of governments to take necessary measures to tackle climate change. Drastic...
On a trip to Greenland, we camped on an ice cap, saw towering icebergs and witnessed the effects of climate change on the world’s biggest island. In August, six students from the Herlufsholm School spent 10 days in Greenland to study the effects of climate...
In a public webinar, a leading UK youth advocate and students from News Decoder’s network discussed challenges to democracy around the world. Democracy might be in trouble around the world, but it will survive the challenges it is facing in the early 21st...
My pregnant wife and I were lucky to escape Afghanistan after it fell to the Taliban. We have swapped danger for refuge and bewilderment in Ukraine. The author and his wife bid farewell to their families at the entrance to Mazar-e-Sharif airport in Balkh province,...
Journalist Zamir Saar delivers a first-hand account of his and his wife Kamila’s experience escaping Afghanistan after the country fell to the Taliban in August. Grateful for refuge in Kyiv, Ukraine, far from the violence and downward economic spiral that face their native land, Zamir and Kamila — five months pregnant at the time they fled — now find themselves unsettled by makeshift living arrangements and uncertainty about their future. As Zamir notes, the hardest part has been leaving the familiar spaces in their home towns and finding nothing so far to replace them in their new environment. But there’s also recognition that there’s only so much a receiving country like Ukraine can do.
Exercise: Ask students to think about what makes them feel most at home and how they might recreate those things in an unfamiliar environment.
Four students express frustration, anger and disappointment over climate change and urge world leaders to listen to youth before it’s too late. News Decoder · Youth speak out about climate change Frustrated. Angry. Disappointed. Climate change inspires a mix of...
“Working hard should matter. Do not be afraid of hardships.” A Rwandan reflects on being challenged and on change. (Photo by: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via AP Images) Below is a poem by Jean Bosco Sibomana, who works at News Decoder partner Kepler in Rwanda....
We are made of molecules, stardust and comets — small matter. I am 21, and I just want to love and be loved — because love is all there is. (Photo collage courtesy of Ange Theonastine Ashimwe) 1. I guess, now, I am twenty-one, and I still wonder what it means to be...
In many parts of the world, turning 21 years old is a milestone that signals a transition into adulthood. For Ange Theonastine Ashimwe, a student at Kepler in Rwanda, 21 is a “green-light number.” In her prose poem, she uses memory and metaphor to reflect on her lived experiences, contemplate our smallness in the universe and consider how much more there still is to learn.
Exercise: Ask students to reflect on a birthday that felt significant. What was happening in their lives? Why did it feel like a milestone? Then make a creative piece that explores those feelings.
Kamuskay Kamara grew up in the streets of Sierra Leone’s capital. He saw young people in the clutches of drugs and now is saving their lives. “I want to actually change the lives of young people.” Kamuskay Kamara has created an NGO to combat drug...
My landlord — “Mum” — treated me like her own son. But I procrastinated — and now regret I never showed her the gratitude she deserved. Beatrice in 2008. (Photo courtesy of Jean Pierre Hakiza). At school, I learned that procrastination is our first enemy...
Students from The Thacher School in California, a News Decoder partner, gained first-hand experience in nonprofit, fashion and television journalism. Elena Townsend-Lerdo interviewed Jonathan Chiu, an editor for the only prison-run newspaper in the United States, for...