My name is Ari Burstein. I am 13 years old and live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I am an 8th grade student at The Philadelphia School. 

I think it is important that everyone, no matter how little money they may have, has a chance to succeed in life. That is why I started a kid-run program called Project Exchange. Project Exchange creates the opportunity for cultural and educational exchange between students at the Philadelphia School in Philadelphia and the Buenos Aires School in Nicaragua. The Project also raises money so that community leaders in Nicaragua can purchase the educational and extra-curricular equipment necessary for the enrichment of the children live on a rural coffee farm in Jinotega, Nicaragua. My mother, Dr. Sharon Ravitch, has worked with this community for almost 8 years in a project she directs through PennGSE (http://www2.gse.upenn.edu/nicaragua/). It is like a second home to her.

The funding we request here is used to support extra-curricular activities for children who don't have access to quality arts and crafts, school supplies, or sports equipment. This includes what they need to support their engagement in sports, visual and performing arts, and the building of relationships with students from other countries through the exchange of videos and letters. The kids live on a rural coffee farm in the community of Buenos Aires in Jinotega, Nicaragua, which is materially poor but emotionally and socially rich. They love sports, art, and music, but have very few pieces of the necessary tools, instruments, and equipment, and the ones they do have, are worn out or broken.

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Project Exchange seeks to:

•Create an exchange program between students in the Buenos Aires School in Jinotega, Nicaragua and The Philadelphia School in Philadelphia, PA

•Create the forum for students to share their lives through the exchange of photos, videos, letters, and other experiences

•Learn about each others’ cultures, schools, and lives

•Help students improve their Spanish and English language skills

•Raise money for improved sports facilities on the Buenos Aires coffee farm (and then other farms)

•Engage in sports activities together as a way to learn culture and sports

•Create an ongoing and sustainable educational collaboration between the schools

•Show kids in the US that even though Nicaragua is a materially poor country, it is rich in strength, resilience, kindness, and generosity

•Become better and more knowledgeable global citizens

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The kids will be so thankful for your donation, as am I. Many thanks for your generosity. Please donate below.