Acknowledging Privilege

The Principal’s Club had a very special visitor a few weeks ago. Deborah McCracken-Nangereke, founder of the Olive Branch for Children, came to speak with the children about her life and her work in Tanzania. Our apologies, the photos from her visit are unavailable at the moment, but we still wanted to share the news of her visit with you. The children were captivated by her story. Deborah went to school at the Bishop Strachan School followed by university in Scotland. After a brief time at home in Toronto after she graduated, she travelled to Tanzania and instantly fell in love with the country and its people. She decided to build her life there and has been living in Tanzania ever since (15 years). She founded the Olive Branch for Children guided by the values of love, compassion and purpose. Deborah spoke to the children about the responsibilty of being rasied with privilege and how she wanted to use the advantages she had in life to help others. This was a big concept for our young students to process but such an important one. The mission of the Principal’s Club is to instill this concept in the children at an early age – for them to learn that they will hold more power than most to effect positive change in the world. Deborah used the metaphor that life is a race that we don’t all start at the same time, depending on the supports we have in life. Again, this is a big concept for the children but Deborah was great and talked to the children on a level that they understood. Deborah also taught the children a beautiful Swahili song of welcome that the children sing in Tanzania. Marie is working on getting a recording of it from Deborah so that we can incorporate the song at CGS. We are so happy to be building this direct relationship with Deborah. We had such a positive and immediate relationship with Lorna from Children of Hope Uganda and it makes such a difference in the experience for the children. It helps them to understand first-hand how the work that they do and the money that they raise makes a difference. We’re looking forward to a long and productive relationship with Deborah and The Olive Branch for Children. Take a few minutes to watch the video below through to the end. It is a powerful illustration of Deborah’s life as a race metaphor and how many people have a tremendous head start that they aren’t even aware of.