Becoming better global citizens: the Finsbury Institute welcomes Hope in Haringey charity

The Finsbury Institute (FI) welcomed the charity Hope in Haringey (HiH) to host a symposium for local secondary school students to discuss topics including politics, develop their critical thinking skills, and how to be a good global citizen.

The symposium was made up of discussions from politics researchers at City St George’s, University of London, as well as talks from coaching and architecture professionals and a poetry performance.

The Tottenham-based charity set up the Haringey African Schools Partnership (HASP), which is a partnership based on learning and mutual aid between four Haringey schools and four sub-Saharan African schools in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Nigeria.

The symposium gave students from the Haringey schools the chance to practice their public speaking by telling the audience about their partnerships in person. Videos created by the sub-Saharan African schools were also presented at the event.

Together, the British and African schools are sharing knowledge, resources and culture. The schools set up pen pal schemes, fundraised money to purchase power generators and laptops, played online games together and one is in the process of creating a cookbook based on each other’s cultural foods.

Esther Akfia, an attorney and the founder of the school Pioneers International Academy, flew in from Ghana for the event. She shared the story of her mother walking many miles a day to reach school, including through rivers, and returning to her studies aged 56 when her eldest child finished high school.

With this background of grit and determination, Ms Akfia carved out a life for herself which has seen her study and practice law and business. She is now a school Principal in addition to her career in international development.

City St George’s academic Dr Sasikumar Sundaram, who heads up the informal Global Disorder research group, described the event as “a buckle between the school community, academics and our local community.” Addressing the students, he said:

We can all look at the world and infer the wrong lessons, which is why we need to develop key critical thinking skills.

We are meaning-making creatures. AI can’t do this.

It’s okay to be more courageous in the real world and asks questions: that is the university experience and a lifelong journey.

The idea behind our inaugural educational symposium is to promote independent learning and research.

We partnered with the Finsbury Institute as they turn research into policy. Doing so helped us to bring a scholarly perspective to our work and linked us with stakeholders in the community.

We want to encourage independent learning and thinking from our partner schools.

Our team of academics will then compare these insights with those of business leaders and the broader theoretical framework, ultimately translating their findings into policy proposals from our network of MPs.