Madu Wellhüner (14)

Madu Wellhüner (14) is a Dutch student in the 3rd year of secondary school on Lentiz Dalton MAVO & Het Groene Lyceum in Naaldwijk, the Netherlands. The school is a Global Citizen School and has a strong focus on education in global citizenship.

"This schoolyear we went on an exchange to Germany and Poland. This spring we would have travelled to Sicily", tells Dutch secondary school student Madu Wellhüner. 

"Due to the Covid-19 crisis the last exchange was cancelled. During the lockdown we did a photography project with students from Portugal, Belgium, and Poland, called 'Social Lockdown'. This assignment was part of the Erasmus+ Social Inclusion-project «Effect of the life of Anne Frank on social inclusion today». We made photos of our home situation during the period that we had to do schoolwork at home. It is fun to show how you live in a situation like this and how others do."

"The digital assignment was fun to do but going on a real foreign exchange is the most fun: the difference in the landscapes and the school and to talk to your host family. Because of the crisis, travelling abroad will be a bit uncertain, but when it is safe to travel again, I advise all students to go on a foreign exchange. You will learn a lot from an experience like that."

"Our school has hosted an exhibition about Anne Frank for a while. During our exchange in Poland for the Social Inclusion project we also organized this exhibition. The exhibition was visited by leading officials and dignitaries that made it very special to be a part of this. I hope our premier Mark Rutte and our Dutch government will promote these activities in schools more, because they are very important for teenagers.

"I think it is very good that premier Rutte has called upon Dutch youth to express our experience with the Covid-19 crisis and the effects it will have on the future. Teenagers often look at things in a different way than adults do. For example, there is much focus on the effects on the economy, but I think it is very important we notice people who have been very affected by the crisis, like people who are handicapped.