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Aims for the Lesson. Use the festival of Sukkot to create awareness and provide tools to help pupils formulate a response to homelessness and inadequate standards of living across the world, a problem that affects almost one sixth of the world’s population. Background information.
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Aims for the Lesson Use the festival of Sukkot to create awareness and provide tools to help pupils formulate a response to homelessness and inadequate standards of living across the world, a problem that affects almost one sixth of the world’s population. Background information During the festival of Sukkot, many Jewish people live, or at least have their meals, in a sukkah rather than inside their homes. Tradition dictates that this is to relive the departure from Egypt of the Israelite Nation, and to highlight their complete dependence on God and God’s protection of them while they travelled in the desert. Living in the discomfort of a sukkah, where one is vulnerable to the elements, is intended to give one an insight, albeit very limited, into inadequate housing. This experience is meant to encourage Jewish people to be more aware of their duties to the poor, particularly those who do not have adequate shelter, through giving tzedaka, and providing meals and shelter.
More Background Information Jews are instructed to make their sukkah homely by providing ‘fine dishes and serving platters’. If the sukkah, which stands only for a week, must allow people to live with dignity, then a permanent home should be even more of a place where people can live in dignity. The sukkah is also a symbol of peace. In the ma’ariv (evening) service, Jews ask G-d to spread His ‘sukkah of peace’ over us. The sukkah is the only mitzvah (apart from living in Israel) that one does with one’s entire body. It encloses and protects a person. This in turn reminds people of their duty to be like G-d and provide protection and peace for others .
Questions What is inadequate housing? The United Nations (UN) Humans Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT), founded in 1978, agreed that a house requires: • access to water • access to sanitation • access to secure tenure (guarantee that one can stay for a fixed amount of time) • durability of housing • sufficient living space. How many people live in inadequate housing? According to UN-HABITAT, there are currently around 1.6 billion people living in inadequate housing conditions in urban areas, with a further 100 million homeless. This is around one quarter of the world’s population.
Housing and Human Rights 1. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, Article 25 You have the right to have whatever you need so that you and your family: do not fall ill; do not go hungry; have clothes and a house; and are helped if you are out of work, if you are ill, if you are old, if your wife or husband is dead, or if you do not earn a living for any other reason you cannot help. 2. Convention on the Rights of the Child, 2 September 1990, Article 27 You have the right to a standard of living which makes possible your full physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.
The Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals are a set of targets agreed by the UN in 2000 to combat poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. www.un.org/millenniumgoals Goal 1: Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women Goal 4: Reduce child mortality Goal 5: Improve maternal health • Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases • Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability • By 2015, halve the proportion of people without basic access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation • By 2020, have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers • Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development
What should I be busy with? In pairs, tick the items needed for a ‘good home’ and cross items that you consider ‘extras’. You can also add other items that you feel are essential Feedback to the class what items you chose and why
