“The American teenager is apathetic, fat, lazy and completely ignorant of the facts and issues of the world,” world studies and history teacher Matinga Ragatz said. “That’s the stereotype right? And they want to break that stereotype, kill that stereotype. And say you know what, we are aware, we understand.”
This semester Ragatz is teaching her World Studies classes global citizenship. In order to get her students actively involved in the world’s happenings she has them planning and running a non-profit charity organization called Interface Global Alliance (iGA) to improve life in Ekuku in Equatorial Guinea located in West Africa. Ragatz and her students hope to break the teenage stereotype through this project.
According to Ragatz, the goal of the program is to abolish nutrition deficiencies and financial destitution from the residents as well as promoting activism to GLHS students. Realizing this goal was impossible to achieve on a large scale, such as taking on an entire country in need like Sudan, they chose to start with one village and gradually expand.
“We thought instead that we would take one village of like 600 people, rural village, in the middle of nowhere, and we would actually, in the next three to five years, eradicate malnutrition to the children first,” Ragatz said. “And what I’m doing, while the students make sure the children eat right, is industry projects such as credit unions to bring jobs there so the parents won’t have to leave.”
Parents leaving for work outside the village sparked the need to feed the village’s children.
“What’s happening is the parents have to leave the village for many, many hours of the day and the kids weren’t eating, or if they were it was last minute,” Ragatz said. “Like at 10 p.m. they might have a bowl of rice, which isn’t really nutritious. So what we’re going to do is feed the kids and while we do that, bring jobs into the community. We’re working on a fishing project where, since they live out in the ocean, we’re going to upscale their fishing. This way they can actually produce up to so much for them to eat but to sell as well, so people will come to the village.”
Not only has the unintentional neglect of the village’s parents led to its gradual degradation but young adults leaving as well.
“It’s become more and more deteriorated because more young people leave for the city to go get jobs,” Ragatz said. “I went there a year ago and was like, it doesn’t have to be this way at all. Because as people, those kids, when they go to the city they get into slums, drugs, what have you and it doesn’t fix the problem.”
Ragatz visited Ekuku last year to see relatives, since Ekuku is where her family is originally from. During her visit, she saw that a woman in the village was already attempting to feed the hungry children. This sparked Ragatz’s idea to set up a system to help Ekuku’s hungry children. Ragatz’s students will be organizing a children’s kitchen that will run using donations. The kitchen will build on to this women’s operation and make it strong enough to supply the need.
“The children’s kitchen will be run by people that I hire and train,” Ragatz said. “And there’s already a woman there trying to feed the kids but she can’t. We’ll help make her operation, so instead of feeding 30 children she can feed 300 children by hiring help and buying supplies. Right now she’s got a pot, and a big bowl. All the kids eat from the bowl with their hands and there are maybe 10 or 15 kids, but there are really 300 kids going hungry. So she will actually have to lock the door so the other kids can’t come in.”
The money donated will also help improve Ekuku’s economy.
“We want to make sure that we patronize that local economy,” Ragatz said. “In order to eradicate poverty, we’ll buy from the local woman or fisherman so they don’t have to go to the market.”
Along with feeding the hungry and boosting the economy, iGA has made an initiative to improving Ekuku’s education system. At a local university, Universidad Nationalde Guinea Equatorial (UNGE), iGA has established an English Language Center to give the children an opportunity to learn the English language. Knowing English is essential for many of jobs and other opportunities.
Currently the students are still organizing and planning for the children’s kitchen.
“We’re working it like a business, so right now it’s the first week and they’re learning all about how to manage a small business,” Ragatz said. “So we’ve divided everybody into departments. So there’s a graphic design department, finance department, fund raising department, and an awareness department for promoting things. Every department has to figure out job descriptions and then for every project there are these little outlines you have to follow. It says who the manager is, who owns the project, who you answer to, and who is responsible for certain tasks.”
The charity is ready for donations and 100 percent of donations go directly towards feeding the children. Through iGA students, or any interested group or individual can feed a child for $2.50 a week (which is the equivalent of giving up two sodas a week).
Ragatz is hoping the charity will provide an opportunity for students to help and reach out, as well as provoke some activism in the student body.
“I hope that we’ll pick up activism,” Ragatz said. “Just act, you have to act. You can’t just pretend that you’re a good person because you’ve never been in trouble. A good person also does good things, and these kids are starving because we don’t do anything.”
In addition to opening an activism outlet for the community, the students also hope to achieve their goal by using the student news service. Computer applications teacher Tracy Clark is allowing Ragatz’s classes to run the news service to cover more awareness stories along with the regular announcements.
“There will be more human interest stories,” Ragatz said. “Our first story is about a boy whose parents have lost work because of the economy. Also, activism stories, any student who is doing something, whether it’s this project or whatever. Then there is the school announcements, and school news. But it’s not going to be trying to be funny. Hopefully when the teachers turn off the TV they can turn around to their students and go ‘Oh my gosh, what do you think? I mean that issue!’ And have a conversation about it. That’s the goal.”
Anyone who is interested in making a donation or learning more about the operation can visit iGA’s Website, www.interface-global.org or can visit Ragatz in room 103.
