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Global Citizenship
FOR SMART KIDS

Preface
A citizen is a member of a community with rights and responsibilities.
Being a global citizen means that you stay informed about issues of global
importance so that you can take action to improve one or more of these
communities. We are after all, not just citizens of our country, but of the world.
Global citizens feel a sense of responsibility to help others when countries or
groups violate the rights of such ordinary people. It does not matter where they
live in the world. Positive change often begins with one person who is passionate
and dedicated to making a difference. When individuals join with others in
the community and begin with local action, this leads to global change.
Commerce, technology, and mass media are inter connecting today’s world
more and more every day. Therefore, the need to become responsible global
citizens is greater now than ever before.
There are various problems around the world that you may not think affects
you directly. However, if you spend some time thinking about these, you will
realize that there is not much difference between people in different countries
and you. If you switched places with the less fortunate people in the world,
you would have appreciated the help of others. No matter how little it seems at
first, every good action makes the world better.

Contents
Chapter 15
The New Kid5
What Nishi learnt in this chapter: 15
Chapter 216
How Much Do I Know? 16
It looked like this: 20
Chapter 328
The Project 28
What Nishi and her friends learnt: 44
For You To Do: 45
It’s time to be a global citizen!” 46

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Chapter 1
The New Kid
Let us read a story about young people like you, who want to do their bit
as global citizens.
It started that day when the new kid lisped in the Geography class.
Monisha ma’am was nice as usual, keeping us interested in boring topics
such as irrigation and climate. We were learning about different crops and
tomatoes came up during the discussion. It led to a talk about a festival
where they celebrate the tomato harvest by throwing all the excess

6
tomatoes at each other, in some
country, somewhere.
“Let’s see how many of you know. The festival is called
La Tomatina, and is celebrated in...?”
Of all people, he had to answer.
“Sssspain”
The whole class roared in laughter. I felt sorry for Arun from that day on.
Every time someone saw him, or had to speak to him, they yelled out,
“lissssten, Arun” or “You’re a sssspain in the neck, Arun.”
My name is Nishi. I don’t usually like making that many friends, especially
new ones who’ve just arrived from strange places like Nigeria

7
and joined class in the middle
of the term. But something made me feel sorry
about this guy. So I decided to talk to him one day.
“If you know you have a lisping problem, why don’t you do
something about it?”
He just looked at me with his big, sad eyes. “I don’t think it’ssss
a problem”
I suppressed a smile and managed to reply kindly-
“Oh, but people make fun of you all the time.”
He had a serious look on his face, as if trying to prove a point.

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“There are children like you
and me, with bigger problems.”
He then told me about children in Nigeria who couldn’t
go to school. Or even eat properly. I had read in papers or seen
Discovery shows about kids in Africa, but never did I realise that
anyone could see it happen in real life.
From then on, I avoided talking to him. I didn’t want to hear all these sad
stories. After all, what’s it to me? And even if I wanted to help them, how
could I? There was no point. So, I minded my own business.
My three closest friends, Puja, Deepshika and Raghav were the coolest in
class. I liked hanging out with them. We had lots to talk. Especially about

9
who was secretly playing
what video game on their mobiles,
during school.
One day as I came home after school and threw my bag on the
living room sofa, mom said, “Someone called you. I said you were
not back yet.”
I was curious. Who would call me at home, even before I got back from
eating ice cream with my friends? “Who was it?”
“Didn’t give me a name. He hung up, after saying he will call later.”
I was most annoyed. If someone made a crank call, I would personally
go and slap whichever boy did it. That would teach him a lesson.

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Then, after an hour, the phone
rang again. I jumped up from the couch
where I was watching TV and ran to pick up the
cordless telephone.
Mom shouted, “Stop jumping like a monkey.”
I picked it up. “Hello?”
“Hi, it’s Arun. Sorry to disturb you.”
“How did you get this number?” I was angry. Here I was hoping to
catch a crank caller and shout at him and there it was that sssspain guy.
One could never shout at him, he was such a loser.
“Yes Arun. What is it?”