In April, Jaci Maurer, Director of the Lehman College Child Care Center presented a workshop at the National Coalition for Campus Children’s Centers (NCCCC) Conference in San Diego, CA. The workshop focused on implementing a curriculum which creates opportunities for our children to develop cross cultural, learning friendships with children in other parts of the United States and the world. The goal of this program is to instill a sense of empathy in our children by incorporating age appropriate activities into our curriculum that will help our children gain a better understanding of the world.

Through this curriculum, the children of the Lehman College Child Care Center have developed an ongoing pen pal relationship with children in a school in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Children and teachers have incorporated classroom activities and sponsored “fun raising” events to help support the educational growth, nutrition and support the teaching staff of our sister school, Drug Fighters and Counseling for the Future Generations (DFC). Over the past 4 years, Jaci Maurer and some of the teaching staff from the child care center have visited DFC several times to assist in improvement projects at the school, as well as implement educational activities with the children of DFC.