Happy School Campaign with Heart to Heart Foundation: for raising awareness of the disabled

Showing students animation that conveys the message of “the disabled can do it”

Heart to Heart Orchestra performing in front of students in classrooms

The survey result shows increase in awareness of disabled.

“The name of the student with developmental disability in today’s animation is Su-ah.”“We have Su-ah in our classroom too! ““Haha. What a coincidence”. Students (5th grade) at the Shinwoo elementary school burst out laughing as soon as Happy School teacher Hyun-jung Kim (39) introduced the animation. However, students soon became serious as Su-ah in the animation was bullied by her friends just because she was slow. At the end of the animation Su-ah, the violinist at the Heart Heart orchestra, played the violin in front of her class mates. After the performance, class mates sincerely apologized to Su-ah.

◇ Heart to Heart foundation produced animation to improve awareness of developmental disability.

Heart to Heart Foundation (Chairman In-Sook Shin) started ‘Happy School’ campaign by visiting schools to improve awareness of the disabled. As part of the campaign, the foundation produced its own animation film as existing animation films for improving awareness of the disabled were quite outdated as they were produced more than ten years ago. The animation film conveys the message that “disabled people can do it” by showing the remarkable talent children with developmental disability possess.

Six-minute animation film highlights the issue of bullying children with developmental disability andexpresses developmental disability as “slowly growing thinking pocket”. By watching the film, students learn to realize that their prejudice towards developmental disability was wrong.

The animation production team consulted with parents of Heart to Heart orchestra members to adequately capture the behavior of children with developmental disability. Parents asked the team to modify the voice acting of children with developmental disability as it was expressed as dull and inarticulate in the video draft. This animation film, adapting the children’s novel ‘Just a little different from me’ written by Keum-I Lee, has now become one of the most popular programs in the ‘happy school’ campaign led by Heart to Heart foundation and sponsored by S-OIL.

◇ From school auditorium to classrooms

In an effort to communicate closely with students about developmental disability, ‘Happy School’ program has become smaller this year. Last year, the program was held at the school auditorium, conducting Disability Awareness Quiz led by comedians from the gag concert and showing performance of ‘Heart Miracolo Ensemble’ (Korea’s first music ensemble composed of five members with developmental disability who were originally members of the Heart to Heart orchestra)

This year, however, the program became smaller; it is held at class rooms with 30~40 students. Curriculum was modified to fit into 40 minute of class hour. After watching the animation film, students watch the performance of Heart Miracolo Ensemble. Lastly, students are asked to write their commitment towards children with developmental disability. ‘I will not ignore the disabled and care about them’, ‘ I will communicate more often with the disabled and stay close with them’, etc are the responses that can be seen in this program. Students present their commitment in front of their class mates. “By presenting in front of others, students will try harder to fulfill their commitment”. Said Hyunjung Kim, Happy School program teacher.

◇ "I want to make a school without discrimination towards the disabled”

“Many students do not realize that children with developmental disability are competent. By watching animation and performance, students can change their prejudice towards the disabled.” said Hwa-Young Chung, a team leader of cultural welfare division. Indeed, there was an improvement in awareness of disabled after participating in Happy School program. The survey was conducted towards 1803 students who participated in the program in 2012. The result shows that the negative perception towards the disabled has decreased while positive perception has increased after participating in the program. Response of ‘disabled people are happy’ has increased from 26% to 59%, and ‘disabled people are healthy and spirited’ from 29% to 58%. In contrast, response of ‘disabled people are unhealthy’ has decreased from 48% to 28%, and ‘disabled people are poor’ from 48% to 23%.

On the other hand, EunsunCho(26), teacher at Shinwoo elementary school pointed out that one hour was not enough to fully increase awareness of people with developmental disability. She also hopes to have more advanced education program to further continue to increase awareness of developmental disability.