Connecting Worlds

The challenge

Intercultural awareness is a topic that is very relevant to the 21st century. With migration of people to different countries, it is now more than ever important to know, understand and respect different cultures. What if you could connect two different cultural worlds together in a manner that is also educational for children? This was precisely the challenge which was answered by Connecting Worlds.

Connecting worlds, known in Colombia as Cartas a granel, is an initiative that is inspired on the work carried out by a Colombian secondary school teacher, Ana Cepeda. Her project in Colombia originated from the needs of secondary school students to practice their writing skills. The initiative consists of exchanging letters between students across different countries in the World. Examples of topics addressed in the letters are costumes, traditions, typical food dishes, ways of thinking, personal life, family life, and others.

Letter writing has become a lost art. Writing education seems to be increasingly disappearing into the background. This is a problem because writing by hand ensures that the information is stored better in the brain than when typing.

The project

Members at Bright Society in association with Ana Cepeda and Nataly Alarcon started a fun project named Connecting worlds to provide a fun activity that motivates students to write to each other. Our first project connects students from the Netherlands and Colombia to write about aspects of their everyday life.

This project not only promotes students to write, but also creates awareness between (Colombian and Dutch) students who live across the ocean allowing them to describe their environment and daily life activities. By doing so, the students are able to step in the shoes of someone across the globe, become empathetic, and understand the living conditions of each other, hence bringing them together socially and culturally. The Dutch students are able to gain appreciation about the immense amount of opportunities they have in their own country. In turn, Colombian people show a different side of Colombia that is usually not presented in the local, Dutch media.

The bright moment

In a fun way both parties learned about each other’s culture and enjoyed the activity. The students from Colombia could not believe they were talking to students from another country across the ocean. The Dutch students on the other hand became more curious about the Colombian culture. In sum, the students from both countries felt enthusiastic about getting in touch with people on the other side of the world by getting letters, writing replies, and learning about each other’s lives.

Get involved

If you are interested in connecting a country contact us at info@bright-foundation.com.