COTW Overview

The first phase of Country of the Week is intended to be an in-home/class project, facilitated by parents, caregivers and teachers for children aged primarily between 5 and 10. Over the course of the program, children will be exposed to the greater world around them—far outside of their own province, state or country—and the people and places that inhabit all 200 countries on earth. Country of the Week will cultivate curiosity and fascination with the people, places and things that make up our world, instilling within children a love of learning and curiosity for global understanding.

Our Objectives

1. To cultivate tolerance, empathy and global citizens out of every child that interacts with the program.
2. To provide families with an easy and fun way of becoming a part of their children's education.
3. To inspire within children a love of learning and global exploration that enables them to become better students at school and more engaged members of their local and the global community.
4. To rekindle a genuine curiosity of the world within the adults that administer the program.

Our Dreams for Country of the Week

This part could fill pages, but I'll simply mention a few to start.

From unique video ideas to podcast ideas to additional original content ideas, there are many roads down which we hope Country of the Week will be permitted to travel. Should phase one of this project prove successful, a movement into shipping full print membership packages (for those without easy access to a printer), world maps designed for COTW and other physical goods may be explored. The ability for users to gift subscriptions to those who are unable to afford them is also something being explored. Creating an edition of the Country of the Week that is suited to older children (ages 11 - 16), complete with weekly quizzes and age-appropriate content is also a part of our COTW roadmap.

With some measurement of project success, we would also like to designate a portion of annual revenue for donation to initiatives that strive to tell new stories about countries and places "we think we already know." This idea was inspired by hearing about people like Julie Epp and her quest to create and share a story she is calling A New Rwanda. You can read more about the incredible journey she is on to tell this story at the official website. As Julie puts it, A New Rwanda is a documentary film about healing and hope in Rwanda, seen through the eyes and hearts of the young people. We would love to help more people tell stories like Julie is working on.