Winkler Elementary School

After much fundraising, the WES Jazz Choir attended the Rocky Mountain Festival in Banff, Alberta from April 18 - 22nd.

The students performed well and had many enriching experiences.

On May 9th the grade 5 –8 students will have the opportunity to hear the author, Joe McLellan. He is an author, educator, storyteller and Deacon in the Catholic Church currently assigned to the John Brebeuf community in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is a skilled facilitator and storyteller. As well as storytelling sessions, workshops, retreats and presentations for many and various Canadian and American schools, education conferences, private organizations, corporate businesses and Catholic and ecumenical organizations and communities, Joe has authored and co-authored several children's books.

In room 3K we spent some time learning about the country of India, human rights and poverty. We did this in a pretty hands on way that helped us to really experience what it's like for girls to be treated unfairly and for some people to go hungry while others have plenty of fancy food and lots extra. To celebrate our learning we had a rich man poor man lunch. Two of us got to sit at a table with flowers, dishes and a table cloth. They got rice, bread, vegetables and dessert. They even had tea with milk. Eight people were middle class. They sat at a table and ate bread and rice off of a piece of lettuce. They had water to drink. The rest of the class sat on the floor, and ate only rice out of a communal dish. They drank only water and most people were still hungry after this. What we learned was that this is how it is in the world. Most people have just enough food to eat or are hungry. They don't get to choose the snacks that they like. They often have only one thing to eat and its the same every meal. We have a lot. We should be very thankful for how lucky we are to have enough good food to eat and not waste it. We should also do what we can to share through things like the can drive, Canadian Foods Grain Bank, and community food banks.

Since 2006, Muuxi Adam has shared his story at the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival: Storytelling on the Path to Peace, and inspired hundreds of young people.  Muuxi embodies many of the qualities Manitobans take pride in - resilience, working for the community, gratitude and giving back.

Recently Muuxi and his colleagues co-founded Humankind International to build a sustainable school for early childhood education in the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya.

The Dadaab Refugee Camp is the largest refugee camp in the world.  More than 100,000 of its 400,000+ residents are under age eight, and are not yet old enough to access the schools, funded by CARE.  When Muuxi visited Dadaab, people expressed the need for early childhood education for those children under eight not yet able to attend school.

Muuxi told his story to the grade 5 through 8 students at W.E.S. and encouraged them to contribute to this worthwhile cause. He is a very interesting speaker who told of many hardships he has experienced, including one story that happened when he was 9 years old. He was lying under a bed with his mother and sisters for 4 straight days without food while a war was raging all around their village.  He tells of sneaking away and going to a nearby city to quickly earn a few pennies to buy bread and then returning to his mother and sisters with the bread. The students listened carefully.  Many of the students responded by giving small donations towards the refugee camp school project.  A youth group from the Christians of the Gospel Faith Church in Reinfeld gave over $300.  Muxxi challenged us and made us realize how blessed we are to live in Canada.  If you would like to donate to this cause, contact the school and talk to Mr. Sawatzky or Mrs. Neufeld.