Multicultural Day at Strändnas

On Friday, 30th April I was one of the invited speakers at the Strändnas Skola Multicultural Day. I did an interactive PowerPoint presentation about Africa in conjunction with Save the Children-Åland.

Strändnas Skola is one of the popular schools in Mariehamn. Some of the students going to this school are refugees from Iran/Kurdistan. It was very interesting meeting these children and finding out what they think of Africa.

Majority of the children referred to Africa as the continent with the largest number of wild animals and also the continent where poverty is at its peak. Like many other people in the West, some of them thought Africa is one land and that all Africans are BLACK.

During my presentation I spoke about the countries in Africa and also education in Africa. I also used the opportunity to talk about the presence of Africans on the Åland Islands and that there are children, like them on the island, who have African dads.

I also held a quiz competition and the winners were offered African beads, dresses and CDs. Almost all the children said the presentation was interesting and they have learnt a lot about Africa and Africans.