by John Mehaffey | 22 Jul 2021 | Educators' Catalog, Refugees, Sport, World
Wesley Mukerinkindi and Gaetan Ekoondo wanted to help youth pitch their skills to professional sports teams. Here’s what they created. Senegalese boys play football in Dakar, Senegal, 26 January 2005. (EPA Photo/Nic Bothma) Wesley Mukerinkindi was just two years old...
Students often wonder how they can make a difference in the world. Wanting to give back to their communities, young entrepreneurs Wesley Mukerinkindi and Gaetan Ekoondo — whose families fled from violence in Rwanda and the Congo when they were children — launched Search Your Team to create equal opportunities for other refugees and underprivileged youth through sports. News Decoder correspondent John Mehaffey interviews Mukerinkindi to learn how the pair were inspired to start the online platform, which helps youth athletes reach their dreams by showcasing their abilities to professional soccer clubs or college basketball teams.
Exercise: Ask students how their personal passions or experiences might be an inspiration to start their own community project and support other young people.
by Nelson Graves | 1 Jun 2021 | Identity, News Decoder alumni, News Decoder Updates, Personal Reflections, School Year Abroad
Elisabeth Wachtel learned a second language, made friends and lifted her chances of college admission by studying abroad for a year of high school. Why would a teenager pick up stakes and leave friends and family behind for a year to study in an unfamiliar, foreign...
by Elisabeth Wachtel | 13 May 2021 | Americas, Europe, Eyewitness, Government, Health and Wellness, Personal Reflections, Youth Voices
COVID-19 has hit France and the U.S. to a similar extent. But their approaches to tackling the pandemic have been radically different — as I’ve seen. Elisabeth Wachtel in front of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral In January, I moved from the United States to...
by Jeremy Solomons | 13 Apr 2021 | Decoders, Human Rights, Personal Reflections, World
I was taught that Modern Colonialism was a force for global good. Later I learned it was a system of exploitation, oppression and enslavement. World empires and colonies in 1914, just before World War One (Wikimedia Commons). As the leaders of the Commonwealth of...
by Robert Holloway | 15 Mar 2021 | Europe, Health and Wellness, Human Rights, Women's rights
Allegations of incest in a prominent family are forcing France to come to terms with sexual misconduct that until recently was widely overlooked. A sign on a wall reads “Duhamel, and the others, you will never be in peace,” referring to prominent French...
