Community Corner

Swampscott Students Build Bridges to Africa

An English teacher, whose name is Peace and comes from Burkina Faso in Africa, met with students of the Swampscott High Interact Club to build a bond between the school and students in the African nation.

Peace came to Swampscott High.

That is Peace Sarambe, an English teacher from the west African country of Burkina Faso.

He spoke French with Swampscott High French students and teachers.

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He thanked the Greater Lynn Photographic Association for the many digital cameras they donated.  He thanked local Rotary Club members for  their financial support, dollars raised through the annual Duct Tape Regatta at Swampscott Harbor.

And he interacted with and thanked the Swampscott High Interact Club.

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The club's members have raised several hundred dollars through fundraisers, the most recent of which was Thursday night, a BARKA Coffee House event in the school cafeteria.

Peace came to the high school April 11, with Ina and Esu Anahata of the BARKA project, a program which has brought clean water and sustainability to at least hundreds villagers in Burkina, a country of about 16 million people.

Peace will return with the cameras and lend them to students and other citizens, asking them to document their daily lives.

Peace, in turn, will send their photos to Swampscott students and teachers, Lynn photographers and others as he builds a relationship between people in Burkina and the United States.

Ultimately, he would like to see cultural exchanges, where students visit each others country.

In the shorter term he hopes to start an informal electronic cultural exchange, with individuals corresponding over the Internet by writing and exchanging photographs.

Peace is a native to Burkina Faso, which is about the size of Colorado. He went to school in Ivory Coast, Africa.

He returned to Burkina, teaching English in Burkina rural communities.

 


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