Pen pal project connected kids from Tucson to Africa

Ali Vick, left, and Maddy Butler, both 9, and Tatum Spencer, 10, work on picture frames for their Kibera pen pals. The project is the culmination of a yearlong effort at Tucson Country Day School. Photo by Mike Christy/Arizona Daily Star

Learning about others and extending a helping hand is what drew Daniel Cardenas into the pen-pal school project with children from Africa.

“Maybe one day you will need help just like them, and maybe they can help you,” said the 10-year-old as he decorated a picture of one of the children from Kibera, one of the largest slums in the world with about 1 million residents.

More than 750 Tucson Country Day School students took part in a yearlong effort, which included sending letters to students in Kibera, outside Nairobi, Kenya, filling a suitcase with crayons, pencils and other school supplies donated by the students and their families, and which is culminating this week with the art project.

Most of the students in Kibera don’t have pictures of themselves — many have never even seen themselves because there are no mirrors, school officials said. So as part of the Child to Child Project: Sharing Kindness With Kibera, the students decorated and framed pictures of their pen pals, glued on purple cloth, with their names to be sent back to Africa.

Continue reading at the Arizona Daily Star.

Effort to link immigrant students with higher education resources launches in Tucson

Immigration attorney Doralina Skidmore, left, gives advice to educators, school counselors, administrators and community leaders while fellow panelist Dulce Juarez, an immigration-rights-project manager with the ACLU, listens. A.E. Araiza/Arizona Daily Star

Nearly four years since Arizona passed what was then considered one of the toughest laws dealing with illegal immigration, the state is the first stop of a series of conferences to talk about how schools can help undocumented students.

Following the Tucson Unified School District’s vote this week declaring itself an “immigrant destination district,” Scholarships A-Z hosted the state’s first Dream Conference.

More than 150 educators and school administrators from across the state came to Tucson Friday to talk about the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — which offers temporary relief from deportation to youths brought to the country illegally — what resources are available and how can they support their students who lack legal status.

Continue reading at the Arizona Daily Star.