The There is Hope Campaign exists to inspire young Caribbean minds. This year, a team of nine traveled to Nassau, Bahamas so that we could try to bring our vision to fruition. On the first day when we showed our host teacher our curriculum, she was immediately excited. All the issues that we had planned to talk about were things that the students were currently struggling with. There were students refusing to believe in self love, student's who thought college was inaccessible, and students that were new to understanding race and identity. Everyday when we came into the class room, the student's were excited to see us. Everyday they surprised us with their questions, their eagerness, and their responsiveness.

 

On the first day, we talked about race and identity. This was important because in the Caribbean children are usually not given the time and the agency to spend time at school thinking about who they are. Our discussion on day one set the tone for the rest of the day. As we discussed slavery, independence, and history, the students began to see that their history is complex and diverse. They also began to understand that despite that history, there have been people who have achieved great things and that they can be one of those people. 

 

Day two was equally as valuable. The topic was self love. Everything in the workshop ran smoothly, or so we though. At the end of the workshop we asked, "So does everyone love themselves?" One of our male students, Kinyada, did not raise his hand. It was confusing that he did not internalize everything that we discussed in our workshop. In a spur of the moment we came up with a great idea. We has everyone in the class say one thing they loved about him and why they think that he should love himself. We also had everyone in the room give him a round of applause. As cheesy as it sounds, his face lit up and I genuinely believe that he started to believe in his worth. 

 

Day three built off day two in some very interesting ways. Our kids made the effortless connection between self love and perspective. They concluded that since everyone has different perspectives, it is important to be kind and not make anyone dislike themselves. They realized that there are already people like Kinyada who are struggling with self love and we should not make it harder on them. This was probably my favorite day because we ended on an amazing note. A part of our perspective workshop was having each person rewrite a popular fairy-tale from someone other than the main character's perspective. One student, Anthony, was shy about sharing his rewrite of Penguins of Madagascar. Seeing that he was shy, Kinyada started off a round of applause for him to make him more comfortable. Anthony was still shy and he read his story very quietly but I think that the support from his class was essential. Day four and five were focused on college and preparedness. Our student's left very excited about eventually going to college and choosing something that they are passionate about.

 

Overall, our trip was a success. Trips like THC are important because black students are not given enough space to begin to learn to love and appreciate themselves. THC gives these students this invaluable experience.