Harmony Champs encourages kindness at school

Program facilitators Sarmed Yassin and Lisa Lynch-Johnston started the program last year to educate children on different cultures and encourage them to think about how they treat others.

“It’s like a leadership cultural awareness and anti racism program,” Mr Yassin said.

“It creates and encourages students to think about the fact that every individual on Earth is different and how we should celebrate the differences that we all have and encourage people to have a conversation to actually learn about each other.

“The main aim is to obviously get them prepared for high school.

“I want to create Year 7s that are all on the same page that will appreciate difference which will create a whole generation of people that appreciate difference.”

Year 5/6 teacher Rebecca Danaher said the program really helped her kids put the issues of other people into perspective.

“It’ll help them in the long run through the transitioning to high school,’’ she said.

“And just not only making friends for themselves, but asking themselves, ‘this kid seems a bit new, nobody’s talking to him. What can I do to make him feel welcome?’ is really good.’’

The day included a 90-minute session which tackled topics like cultural diversity, Aboriginal history, migration, appreciation for difference and racism and how to stop it.

Afterwards students were given a card which asked them to write down what one thing they’ll do after listening to the session.

Some of the things students had to say included:

“I’ve learnt to treat others equally and not discriminate against anyone and not assume things about them.” — Zainab Alrobaie

“We need to include others so they don’t feel left out.” — Ice Marquez

“I learnt it’s important to stand up for yourself and help people.” — Tabarek Beetsayed

“Let’s stop bullying together. Everyone is different, but we should all be together.” — Blaike Inifer