How Montclair Students Birthed a Global Network to Help Schools in Tanzania
Two years ago, Amir Doctry and his students in the Global Citizens class at Renaissance at Rand Middle School began a unique project.
Known as G.L.E.A.N., the Global Learning Exchange of All Nations, the project is a partnership of schools and students representing nine countries who work together to provide help to schools in Tanzania and get to know each other in the process.
And with G.L.E.A.N. now receiving aid from UNICEF, Doctry said the group hopes to accomplish even more than it has so far.
G.L.E.A.N. got its start in 2019 when Doctry took a trip to Tanzania. He visited a local school and got to know some of its students. The school did not have a lot of items that Montclair youngsters take for granted, so Doctry decided to start a project with his students to help it out.
In the years since its inception, G.L.E.A.N.’s work has grown. A collection project for Books for Africa resulted in 592 boxes of books being gathered and shipped, and a poster project created and collected educational posters, such as times tables, graphs and charts, for the school in Tanzania.
BFA Addendum:
GLEAN held an awards ceremony and fundraiser on Saturday, February 5th, which included speakers from UNICEF and Books For Africa.
This awards ceremony was attended by about 70 participants, including participants from Japan, Russia, Belarus, Vietnam, USA, Philippines, Malaysia, Croatia and India!