New York—Blue Chip Foundation, in partnership with Generation Human Rights, The VII Foundation, and United Photo Industries has launched Get on the Bus!, a traveling education exhibit powered by the lessons learned from the Millennium Villages Project.
The bus, converted into a traveling exhibition, journeys from school to school across the country, helping high-schoolers connect global issues to local issues and encouraging solution-based thinking. The interactive classroom program requires students to complete one educational module before the bus arrives; sign-up, which is free for educators, includes a complete lesson plan designed to immerse students in the concept of extreme poverty and how it affects communities – both locally and globally.
Designed to engage students through creative learning, the curriculum encourages visual thinking strategies, evidence-based discussions, mapping activities, and storytelling activities, as well as narrative and expository writing.
“When Ron Haviv, Gary Knight and I first talked about the MVP project as a whole back in 2015, we discussed an educational component after the book had been completed. Luckily, with a generous donation from the Gross Family Charitable Fund, we were able to complete this vision this year in 2018,” says Blue Chip Foundation founder Jenn Gross.
Gross, who has been heavily involved in documenting the Millennium Villages Project’s progress, from Potou, Senegal and Koraro, Ethiopia to Mayange, Rwanda, is primarily focused on engaging kids and ensuring they’re connected to the rest of the world.
“It is important for me that American kids realize that there are kids just like them in Ghana or Ethiopia. We are living in an age of indifference and that is one of the most dangerous threats to our society. Through the photographs, videos, and interactive dialogue, we can open students' hearts and minds to human beings in need in Africa,” says Gross.
Elana Haviv, founder and director of Generation Human Rights, wrote the program’s curriculum.
“In order to prepare for the bus visit, students are led through four lessons in Module One, which sets the stage for the MVP educational program. Students set up their own ‘rules of engagement’ that will support them as they navigate complex and difficult subject matter, which the Millennium Villages Project curriculum allows them to address,” says Elana. “They develop a foundational understanding of human rights that includes exploration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Millennium Development Goals. They even create their own class declaration: The Rights of the Teenager. They continue on to learn about the diverse continent of Africa. Throughout the lessons, multimedia such as digital maps, films and photography support student understanding of these complex concepts.”
By December 2018, the bus will have traveled from New York City to Santa Fe, New Mexico, with dozens of stops on the way – including in places like Madison, Wisconsin and Des Moines, Iowa.
Traveling with the bus, Robert Pluma and Quinn Berkman strive to energize participants across the country.
“Being part of an educational project is always an inspiring challenge. The opportunity to participate on a unique tour featuring powerful imagery, an examination of development models which attempt to define and address the critical causes of disparity, and a chance to spark meaningful action among young people fuses elements of some of my most closely-held passions, says Pluma, docent and driver for MVP. “The students we have encountered have approached this exhibition with skepticism and curiosity, and are leaving with new ideas about why this work should be relevant to them and how they can apply these concepts to their own lives.”
Many students wish the ideas and projects like Get on the Bus! were routinely offered – or at least presented more often – in their own classrooms.
“The overall consensus has been that students wish that these ideas and projects such as MVP occurred more in their day-to-day class lessons,” says Berkman. “Using real world and current day examples such as MVP to connect to broader themes of community change is the most powerful tool for a young person. Many of them have not been exposed to such detailed documentation of what life is like in countries such as Senegal, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Ghana. They are both curious and surprised to learn how different countries struggle and handle similar problems that their own communities face as well.”
Ron Haviv, who documented Millennium Villages Project for People Magazine, worked with Gross to launch Get on the Bus! and bring the MVP’s story across the continent.
“Each time I witnessed the success that was happening on the ground, I realized there needed to be an even more comprehensive and long-term documentation of the project. When Jenn Gross of the Blue Chip Foundation and I were brought together, it was obvious that we both understood the need for this to happen,” said Ron. “The first phase included photographers and filmmakers from the VII Photo Agency documenting a part of the last year of the project to create a book, an exhibition and a series of films that were shown at the United Nations in New York, and elsewhere. The second phase was to make sure there was an educational component to impact students in the United States. With Generation Human Rights developing a curriculum and United Photo Industries creating a moving exhibition housed in a renovated school bus, we are able to reach students across the nation.”
He says there’s more on the way, as well. “The next phase of the project will have the images returning to the people we documented in Africa. Exhibitions will be held in the capital cities of Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Senegal, and most importantly, in the villages where the images were taken. The visual component of the Millennium Villages Project will have impact from student to adult and continent to continent.”
Educators anywhere in the continental U.S. can sign up for the program here. Signup includes lesson plans with online support, documentary films, a photo and essay book on the Millennium Villages Project, and an interactive presentation on the bus. Administrators from the Get on the Bus! program are scheduling winter and spring 2019 slots now.
“Through this exercise in compassion, high school students will in turn grow and be more valuable citizens in their own communities. The lessons contained in our curriculum on Sustainable Development on MVP bus tour are invaluable. After educating students on how these African villages were brought out of poverty, and that each community's economy is holistic and ever changing, they will be empowered to move and participate in their own community with more confidence,” says Gross.
