YLP with Azerbaijan Adult Finalist Elmira Ilizarova Shares on GYSD

Elmira Ilizarova's student share their Earth
Day poster with the class 

Thank you to Elmira Ilizarova for her impressions of GYSD 2012 and how the event brought together her community and school. 

Global Youth Service Day event is a great event that brought so many people together. The range of the activities was so big that we don’t know what to start with!

April was a very busy month in our school. When we were preparing for our Annual English Language Week we introduced the idea of holding the GYSD.  One of the activities was poster presentation and one of the topics was “The Earth Day”. The students got very excited as they had a good chance to speak out and be heard. They shared their thoughts and brought new ideas about saving the world and the whole planet.

The next step was a conference. 9^th grade students were so much involved in the activity that they decided to invite their pees from other classes and presenters for the conference. The participants had a real talk and exchange of opinions on the subject.

While upper grades were discussing the global problems on how to “Save the World” 6^th grade students organized “Recycling Debate.”

Students and staff with the children at the
boarding school

At the beginning they were introduced the rules for running an effective and productive debate. They learned how to communicate using etiquette. It was one of the lessons that taught all the students very important skills for their future life.

While giving their opinions on one of the subtopics “Recycle, reuse, and reduce” the students suggested going to the orphanage. They said that they had a lot of toys, clothes that they could share with the other children. So, we went to a boarding school for children with special needs. We took a lot of presents, had a real party, danced, played football and made friends. We were happy as we could make other people happy.

It was hard to say “Good Bye” and promised to come back soon. We have already started preparing for the second trip on the 1^st of June –International Children's Day.