S1/2 continued their RME conferences with a day on the theme of Rich World, Poor World. This busy day began with a look at how the world’s wealth is divided up and some of the issues that arise from this division of wealth. Using games the group could easily see what an unjust world we live in and how sometimes even those trying to help developing countries can sometimes make life worse for those already suffering. The second session began with groups trying to break their chains and get back into a circle which lead to a discussion on debt. In groups the class looked at what the major world religions have to say about charity and ended the morning studying human rights and the responsibilities that come with these.
In the afternoon S1/2 worked in workshops of their choice. One group delved further into the problems that debt brings playing the Debtbusters game and quickly came to the conclusion that the banker always wins! A second group used drama to compare and contrast the daily lives of those in developing and developed countries coming up with a very clever mime to a narration. The third group used role play to decide whether boycotting products which have been made with child labour was in the best interests of those children. The group split into groups representing a football team, the children, the company selling the balls, a local charity and a campaign to boycott. There were also journalists to take notes – after some heated discussion between the groups the football team came to its decision. The forth group looked at the problems facing those who are HIV positive and contrasted the treatment of an Edinburgh patient with a patient in Uganda.

At the end of the day each group reported back and the day ended with everyone recording what they could now do to help the world, on strips of paper they wrote what they would like to see stopped (these will become paper chains) and on hands they wrote what should be done (these will become a Christmas tree!)