◇ 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produced its own animation film as existing animation films for improving awareness of the disabled were quite outdated as they were produced more than ten years ago.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.
