Everything you need to understand or teach A Bell for Adano by John Hersey.
Two cultures confront one another in this book; an ancient one, that of Sicily, whose people are very poor and who have lived for centuries under the domination of local landlords, and the American army of occupation from a wealthy country with a tradition of democracy. The Americans would be there a few years only. They might try to help the people, but after their brief occupation old patterns would soon reestablish themselves...