Annan listens to pupils' ideas for promoting Africa

FORMER UN secretary-general Kofi Annan made good on his promise to a local Grade 7 pupil when he visited Reddam House Atlantic Seaboard, stopping off while in town for the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Pupil Raebe Khonyane spoke to Annan publicly through YouTube, asking him to put Africa at the top of the WEF agenda in Davos, Switzerland.
Annan’s response, posted on YouTube within 24 hours and which has since received more than 90 000 hits, culminated in a competition for local pupils to find ways to best promote Africa to the world in terms of sustainability, agriculture and global warming.
The pupils’ innovative ideas ranged from re-educating the foreign press about Africa and raising education standards, to returning to traditional African farming methods.
Yesterday, Annan stopped by Reddam House after launching the Africa Progress Panel Annual Report 2009 at the WEF early in the day, keen to hear first-hand from some of the local pupils about their views on improving the world’s perceptions of Africa.
He listened attentively as each pair of representatives from competing high schools delivered their ideas to a crowd of proud parents, student supporters and the media.
“You’ve told me exactly what this continent needs. I will go out to the world with your message, with your instructions,”Annan told the pupils.
Calling the pupils “the leaders of the 21st century”, Annan urged them to begin humanitarian progress on a local level, but to remember to expand beyond the local community.
Annan gave the gold award for the competition to Camps Bay High School, which proposed a grassroots level “pay it forward” plan.
In terms of the plan, a small number of families in a given African country were taught farming methods and given the necessary resources to utilise the land. These families would, in turn, teach other families in the community about farming.
The learning process would be paid forward until the community successfully combated hunger.
The WEF started yesterday and continues until Friday.
 

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