Watch above: A group of Saskatoon students is thinking good and doing good in an effort to combat racial discrimination. Aaron Streck takes a look at the exercise and its promising results.
SASKATOON – They come from different cultural backgrounds, hold different beliefs and are different ages but a diversified group of elementary school students and mothers shared a common goal Friday at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. “Think Good. Do Good.”
“A friend of mine used the expression I want to coin, it starts with me. So for sure the next generation is our target and obviously we believe strongly that education is key,” said Heather Fenyes, the organizer of “Think Good. Do Good.”
“They will all teach us a lesson or two,” said supporter Fatima Coovadia.
The Grade 4 to 7 students from five different Saskatoon elementary schools discussed the three r’s … respect, rights and responsibilities in Canadian shared values and their role in eliminating racism in our community.
“I have friends from different religions from different races different cultures and that doesn’t matter, just because we believe in different things that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends,” said Grade 7 student Safiya Sidyot from Saskatoon’s Misbah School.
“At my school there’s a lot of different races of people there like some of my best friends are from … one of them is from Asia and one of them is First Nations and I accept them,” added Reuben Sittler, a Grade 5 student at Pope John Paul II School.
“I don’t see it often in schools but I do still feel like we have work to do to eliminate racism in Canada and throughout the world,” said Andrew Wakula, who is in Grade 6 at Brunskill School.
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The 170 elementary school students fanned out across the University of Saskatchewan to hand out pins and spread the “Think Good. Do Good.” message.
“Start a conversation, I don’t think we’re going to eliminate racism here at the University of Saskatchewan, if we do bonus but if we have people start engaging in the kinds of discussions considering what each everyone of us can do to be part of the elimination of racism it is a great success,” said Fenyes.
While racism and discrimination aren’t going to end overnight, the young people are heading in the right direction.
March 21 is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
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