These 4 classes receive a pizza party for most funds raised: Mr.Reimer $6,430
Miss Booy $5,402
Mr. Martens $3,536
Mrs. Peters $2,966
| For the past month or so, one of the primary focuses at Student Council meetings has been to find a way, as a school community, to impact and support those who are less fortunate than us. While we looked together at several different opportunities, both through organizations and personal connections, Jana Klassen, our Secretary Treasurer on Student Council, presented a cause which captured our hearts. Some of you may be familiar with the issues of child soldiers and nighttime commuters in Uganda. In one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts, decades of conflict between the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) Rebels and the Ugandan Government have left northern Uganda ravaged. The LRA Rebels are lead by Joseph Kony, who proclaims to both be the spokesperson of God and inhabited by the Holy Spirit. His efforts to “establish a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and Acholi traditions” have included widespread acts of torture, rape, mutilation, the abduction of civilians, the use of child soldiers, and a number of massacres. This conflict has resulted in tremendous social and economic costs for all of Uganda – but it is the children that suffer the most. Violently abducted Ugandan children make up the brunt of the LRA army, and these children have been forced, through torturous training and brainwashing, to become laborers, frontline soldiers, and sexual slaves – though many have died in the process. With their protection low on the government’s priority list, over 25,000 children have been forced to nightly commute to the nearest town, sometimes miles away, and sleep together in cramped, filthy conditions, merely to decrease their chances of being abducted during the night into the LRA ranks. These children have become known as the "Invisible Children". Organizations such as World Vision and the Invisible Children movement (who originally coined the term ‘Invisible Children’) are already heavily involved in these issues in Uganda, but we have found our own personal connection to the issue. Though not on the frontlines of the conflict, Jana Klassen’s close family friends Luke and Suzanne Jones have been working as missionaries in Uganda through Fresh Fire Ministries. Together, Luke, Suzanne, their four children and another family, the Neale family, have set up and maintained the Uganda Jesus Village, home to many displaced children and families due to the LRA-Ugandan Government conflict. Fresh Fire Ministries’ vision for the village is to provide for the Ugandan people’s needs through housing, a private school, recreational facilities, a medical clinic, a church, and much more. So, over the next few months, Student Council will be providing students with several opportunities to support our campaign, which we are calling ‘See the Invisible’. After we present our campaign to the students at the beginning of this coming semester, we will continue to keep you and your children updated through this newsletter, chapel, and the Student Council website. We hope that you will stay tuned as we move along and get involved wherever possible. |
