Homeschoolers Help Refugees in Northern Uganda
Recently the Dallas Area Homeschoolers Roots & Shoots (R&S) group organized a garage sale event and raised $525 (USD) from the sale and outside donations. The money will be sent to the Agoro Community in Northern Uganda where it will be spent on building a local vocational school, to help cover teacher allowances, for buying text books, and for mailing letters.
The following are excerpts from the interview I had with Dawn, the coordinator of the Roots & Shoots group.
Q. How did you get involved with RESPECT?
My R&S group was looking to form a partnership with another R&S group in another country. I read about RESPECT International in a R&S newsletter, I believe, and asked my kids if anyone was interested in establishing a pen pal relationship with refugee students. Most of my members were eager to do so.
Q. What has been the students' reaction to the letter exchange?
Some of the refugee students wrote about the hardships in Agoro and requested some things as simple as a pair of shoes. This deeply touched the kids in my group and they immediately asked what we could do to help.
Q. Could you please tell me about the garage sale and its importance?
When I asked Tom Fred (Chairperson, Agoro Community Development Association (ACDA) and Coordinator, RESPECT Uganda) what we could do to help his school, he said money is what is most needed for long term solutions. My group brainstormed ways we could raise funds to support ACDA, and voted on holding a garage/bake sale. Everyone helped by both collecting and donating items to sell, contributing baked goods and drinks to sell, and/or working at the garage sale. We solicited contributions from family, friends and other homeschool groups, and found many people who willingly donated items.
At the entrance, we set up a bulletin board with information on ACDA including pictures from their website and photos of some of our pen-pals. I think this had a big affect on some of our customers. I remember emailing Tom Fred with our fundraising idea. My excitement immediately turned to embarrassment when explaining to him what a garage sale is. Here is a community so impoverished that their children are asking complete strangers for shoes, and we have such an abundance of material items that we actually hold sales to get rid of stuff we no longer want. It doesn't seem fair. In the end, we raised $525 (USD) from the sale and outside donations.
Q. What is the community response toward this event?
The community's response was amazing. Many people supported our efforts and willingly cleaned out their closets and garages and donated their unwanted or no-longer needed items to our sale. And they did this knowing we could not provide them with a charitable-donation tax receipt. Fellow homeschoolers came out to shop, and many of our customers bought willingly, knowing the money was going to a good cause.
Q. What will the funds be used for?
The money will help support the local vocational school they are planning to build in Agoro. It will be used for teacher allowances, textbooks, and mailing letters.
Q. Do you have any plans for future actions for this community?
I have worked some with Marc, from RESPECT, to help ACDA establish a Roots & Shoots chapter in their community. Other than that, we have no specific plans at the moment, but we will continue to find ways to help our friends in Northern Uganda.
Q. When did you establish this Roots and Shoots group and with what objectives?
The Dallas Area Homeschoolers Roots & Shoots was established August, 2004. Kids are full of fresh and creative ideas, and it's always more fun to work together with friends. Therefore, I formed our R&S group to provide local homeschool kids an opportunity to take action and help their community and to have fun in the process.
Q. Could you please highlight some activities (in addition to the garage sale) of your group?
Our group has been very busy in the few months we've been together. We've built bat houses to encourage more bats in our area to help combat the mosquito problem; we collected books for some local refugees in Dallas and spent an afternoon reading to and playing with the children; we collected toiletry items and assembled relief kits for the tsunami victims; we visited a local, no-kill animal shelter to socialize the animals and we helped box canned goods at a local food pantry.
Some upcoming events include cleaning up a creek as part of the Great American Clean-up and visiting an exotic feline rescue center to make enrichment toys for the big cats.
Q. "Education is the foundation of every state" What immediate steps do you suggest to help improve the education for refugees students?
I think hooking the schools up to the internet will prove to be an invaluable tool for the refugee students, especially those who live in remote communities such as Agoro. With just a simple click one can find information on just about anything.
Q. Are there some other groups like yours working for the welfare of refugees?
Arriving Refugee Reception Center in Dallas which helps refugees who have relocated to the Dallas, Texas area, is the group we have established a relationship with. The other groups will obviously be there, but I do not know them.