Using Technology to Effect Change....through Service Learning and Partnerships

"My passions are technology, teaching, learning, and collaborating with others to create a better world. These inspire me to nurture and weave connections that use the strengths of social, economic, and generational differences to meet challenges with joy and optimism."
Kathleen Chromicz,  2019
  • While this site is dedicated to sharing joys in using technology to support us, this page is dedicated to sharing some Service Learning Experiences that make up the beginning & middle of an African journey currently spanning 27 years. 
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  • If you are inspired to follow further, please do visit Villages Innovate , which is the dream I have been living all my life and is now a reality as a Not-For-Profit organization.

School Partnerships Reloaded

The Zimbabwean sister schools, Kadyamadare Primary School in Juru and Harare International School in Harare entered a joint venture to create a movie for Apple's Southern Africa iLife competition. A small group of students from each school, led by a teacher from Kadyamadare, produced this video explaining the impact of the partnership over the years. 
Compassion and strength build the energy of change.

iLife Story....A Tale of Children

This is a brief story of the process undertaken by two school communities in Zimbabwe whose students worked together in two teams to produce two videos to enter into an iLife competition in Southern Africa.
​The student teams bridged the language and cultural differences to give voice to two topics. The first, which actually won the competition, was entitled "Growing Out of Poverty". The second (on left) described how our Twin School Program involving real relationship-building led to innovation and change, not only materially, but within our hearts and souls. Hopefully, it shows some of the joy experienced throughout the journey. 

A Hearty Thanks for Hearty Mahewu!

A nourishment program at schools is an excellent addition to any school program. Our form of nourishment was Mahewu, and this became a very popular time during the day! This movie, made by the children and community, is a thank you message to one of the donors.

​It also demonstrates the power of media to strengthen a sense of well-being when put into the hands of everyone, closing the digital divide.

Click this Link for a copy of the Sewing Project Proposal

Service Learning Sewing Project

This story shows the joy of collaboration involving a the beginning of a sustainable sewing project in an African village in 2011. Over eighteen years, a Twin School program blossomed into a dynamic working relationship between villagers, their community school, and an International School. The joint project won a grant from the Association of International Schools in Africa to help purchase sewing machines that initiated local production of uniforms for the students. Real innovation seems to result from the enthusiasm and energy generated from weaving wildly varying resources and talents into joint ventures.
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We made the movie in appreciation of partnerships and to celebrate the human spirit.

One Farewell Leads to Future Projects:  The Resource Center is now Complete!

​This message was made as a farewell from colleagues at the International School after 18 years of service. 

Included are some of my own thoughts and reflections about those years of teaching, learning, and growing with students.

The Resource Center, built with bricks made by the community and labor from both HIS students and the local community is now complete.

To accomplish further partnerships,
​ Villages Innovate is now a Not-For-Profit organization!