LearningCycles series Enough for Everyone Creative Activities on Addressing Worldwide Poverty

The LearningCycles series offers a creative approach to faith formation based on different learning styles, appropriate for K-5th graders.  Each LearningCycles unit generally includes seven workshops: Art, Story & Games, Drama & Activity, Music, Kitchen, Movie, and Publishing.  This series works well for whole family/intergenerational catechesis and is a great basis for grandparent camps or other vacation bible schools.

In the year 2000, at the dawning of a new millennium, leaders from 189 nations – including the US – agreed to work together to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015. These world leaders unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration, which led to eight specific Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While we know 2015 has come and gone and these goals have not yet been met, there is still a consistent commitment by these world leaders to work together towards these ends. This LearningCycle presents these eight MDGs in child-friendly language.

This LearningCycle hopes to engage children and adults in cultivating a faith that seeks justice and a more equal distribution of resources. It explores how to be in touch with global and local realities and how to begin to build the Kingdom of God in the here and now.

• MDG #1 - End Extreme Poverty – Read the story of Ruth and Naomi in the Book of Ruth and experience gleaning and/or create a drama play based on the story of Joseph and his brothers in the famine.
• MDG #2 - Primary Education for All -–Think about what school is like in different communities or parts of the world and/or make Jewish tefillin (small boxes for scripture scrolls) for the Shema (central Jewish prayer) as a way to explore how we learn.
• MDG #3 - Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment – Purify water from a local river or water source and/or bake different kinds of bread from around the world to engage with questions of equality and access, especially for women and girls.
• MDG#4 - Reduce Child Mortality – Create a prayer net to reflect on the needs and desires of children around the world and/or walk a labyrinth and engage in quite prayer activities to get in touch with the importance of grieving and grief rituals.
• MDG #5 - Improve Maternal Health – Engage in a brainstorming game about what pregnant or new mothers need for themselves and their new babies and/or make masks and depict a family drama.
• MDG #6 - Combat HIV, Malaria, and Other Diseases – Make paper beads as a way to teach about different livelihood projects that communities do to generate income that can be used for prevention and care of diseases like Malaria and HIV/AIDS.
• MDG #7 - Environment – Pick vegetables from a garden in your local community and make a simple salsa or dish with them and/or decorate cloth tote bags to promote recycling awareness and cut down on plastic use.
• MDG #8 - Global Partnerships – Find cooperation and partnership in nature with a photo scavenger hunt and make frames for these photos out of recycled materials.

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