Books of Hope bound for Uganda
By NANCY KIMBALL
Students invite community to donate to cause
The Daily Inter Lake
Education is much more than a matter of imparting the knowledge and skills by which narrow goals are achieved. It is also about opening the child's eyes to the needs and rights of others.
- The Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize recipient
One first-grader turned the pages for the high school ninth-grader.
Another little kid pointed out pictures in the handmade book which the big kid had written and illustrated.
Together - as ninth-grade English students at Kalispell's H.E. Robinson Vo-Ag Center read to Stillwater Christian School primary students last week - they were reaching beyond themselves to the children of Uganda.
Through an international effort called Books of Hope Uganda, Kalispell students are on their way to bring a ray of relief to victims of Northern Uganda's brutal civil war, now 20 years running.
In a particularly insidious onslaught, the Lord's Resistance Army abducts children as young as 6 for sex, slavery or soldiering. The army believes fighting age begins at 7. Leaders often force children to murder their parents or other children.
To try to avoid that fate, bands of young "night commuters" make nightly treks on foot from their villages to empty churches, bus stations, dusty doorways. The lucky ones find shelter in temporary assistance centers. In the morning, they walk back home or to school.
Such children have neither comfort nor possessions.
A book made especially for them by a U.S. student can mean the world.
To deliver a small part of that world, Flathead High School teacher Kelli Kuntz followed through on an idea she got from a televised "Dateline" story detailing The Memory Project.
The project was started a couple years ago by a Wisconsin man who believes firmly in the Dalai Lama's philosophy cited above.
Memory Project workers take photographs of children who are living in difficult circumstances around the world, enlist talented high school and college art students to produce portraits, then returns them to the children through its Memory Portraits program. Last year, 3,000 U.S. art students gave these children one of the few personal keepsakes they will ever own, helping them honor their heritage and identity.
Expanding on the idea, The Memory Project launched Books of Hope.
American students write thoughtful, educational or entertaining stories, illustrate them, then bind them in some durable fashion. Orphaned and refugee children in India and Uganda, two countries where the English language is central to education, receive these books to keep as their own.
Again, the books are one of their few childhood possessions. Last year, 30,000 U.S. students participated.
Kuntz wanted her students to be among them.
Both the Memory Portraits and Books of Hope, she figured, would dovetail perfectly with the school's International Baccalaureate emphasis and heighten Flathead students' global awareness.
Kuntz pitched Books of Hope to the English department and got the interest of three teachers at Flathead High - Carrie Simpson at the Vo-Ag Center and Rob Ford and Sarah Langlois at the Flathead campus - and another at the junior high, Valeri McGarvey.
For a $100 schoolwide fee, the teachers received a package of information and videos to share with their students.
Once in her classroom, Simpson said, Books of Hope caught fire.
About three weeks before the trek over to Stillwater Christian, she had shown the heart-rending PowerPoint presentation.
"The kids instantly were all about it," Simpson said.
They researched deeply, coming up with their own worksheet of a dozen questions: "What countries surround Uganda? Are these countries experiencing similar problems of poverty, civil war and disease? Are these countries allies or enemies to Uganda?" "What do Ugandan kids do for fun?" "Are most children in Uganda orphans?" And more.
Knowing that the next step would be to write and illustrate their own books, several of the students wanted to produce more than one, Simpson said.
They sharpened their writing skills, toned down the reading difficulty level, targeted their audience with topics the authors knew but the readers could appreciate. They incorporated the "hero's journey" in their plots, moving the story forward through a sympathetic character.
Students came up with their own evaluation standards outlining essential elements, awarding points for each one.
"When you give them choices, they are so much more into it," Simpson said. "They learn when they are involved."
Last week's connection with the Stillwater Christian kindergarten, first- and second-grade students became a connection-by-proxy with the books' intended recipients.
"They weren't just looking at these kids, but they were thinking of the Uganda kids and how the books would affect them," Simpson said.
Some of the students' comments after reading to the children were revealing:
. "People in Uganda barely ever even get books, and now they'll know someone wrote it especially for them."
. "Someone actually was interested in reading my book."
. "I learned about the problems in the world and how to help."
. "I got to see how the little kids appreciated it. One gave me a hug, so I can tell the Uganda kids would like these."
. "Just the looks on their faces, they were so amazed. It was so uplifting."
Now, along with shipping off these books to Uganda, the students are doing some fundraising in the community to help children through UNICEF's Global Child Protection Fund.
Money is disbursed from that fund to help children in many countries, providing nutrition, education, clean water and basic needs.
Its child protection efforts helped bring home 550 abducted children, including 195 young mothers in Uganda. Emergency shelter and household items went to 40,000 night commuters, plus 2,500 formerly abducted children and their families. It helped in more than 250 cases of sexual and gender-based violence and supported training for more than 300 Ugandan People's Defense Force officers.
Simpson's students hope for the community's generosity as they collect donations between now and Christmas. Make checks payable to UNICEF and write "Global Child Protection" in the memo portion.
Mail them to Carrie Simpson, School District 5, 644 Fourth Ave. W., Kalispell, MT 59901.
Contact Simpson at (406) 751-3952, or by e-mailing simpsonc@sd5.k12.mt.us
On the Web:
www.thememoryproject.org
or www.unicefusa.org
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com