Global Issues Club

If you attended last Thursday’s Global Issues Meeting in the middle school then my question to you is are you ready for the talent show?

If you didn’t come and have no idea what I’m talking about then I’ll explain. Mrs. Sikora, middle school’s amazing art teacher, decided that before we leave for our summer vacation, we should have one more fundraiser from the middle school. She had an idea for a talent show. We would have auditions and choose the top 10 to represent the school. Anyone from any grade is allowed to audition. We would then sell tickets for opening night and also have a concession stand to make more money. All the money would go to A-Cet to help build the school in Ethiopia. 

Now that everyone knows what the plan is my question is we only have 1 month of school left. Is it possible to have all this done? We have to arrange, advertise, audition and then put on the show!!!

I have heard that some students and Mrs. Sikora are going to prepose the idea to Mr. Ladd. Once approved we are going to immediately advertise. We have to make sure we peek interest so we have people to are willing to participate.

So, the key to success here is time management. So I’m asking two questions here

•  Is this possible with the short period of time?

• And if yes, how?

- Leila

Here is what one of the posters made for the boot sale say so if you didn’t come to the meeting or want some information it’s here. This one was made by Nishat.

What: Boot Sale

When: May 3 2008. 3-5 PM

Where: Middle school parking lot

Why: The funds are going to A-CET for building the school.

How: Bring in old, unwanted and usable stuff to sell in the back of your car. Or donate some of it to ‘the table’.

Money: QR 70-For one space in the parking lot and QR 10 for entrance.

Who: Elementary kids; but the Global Issues Club is trying to help out!

Listen to the morning announcements and look for posters if you want to learn more.

- Leila 

Like Mr.J mentioned during the previous Global Issues meeting here is the spot to see how we can help the elementry with their Boot sale. I don’t remember the date but it will be sometime after Spring Break. If you were not there for the meeting then I’ll give you a summery on the Boot Sale.

4th or 3rd, don’t remember, graders are holding a boot sale. In the sale you buy a section of land to sell your stuff on. Each section cost 70 to 80 Riyals. Once you have the place you can sell whatever used items you have at home and make money. All the money made from the land selling goes to A-Cet to help build our school in Ethiopia.

Here are a couple of questions to start a conversation.

• How is this Boot sale going to help us?
• How can we in the middle or high school help support this event?

- Leila

Sometimes when we are engaged in activism, fundraising, or raising awareness, we forget the impact our work has on the very people we are trying to help. It is always a good idea to keep the bigger picture in mind as we move forward. Here are a few pictures from the people we are working with. These are young children who are the next generation of Ethiopians, they are ones who will directly benefit form our work. It is for them that we are building this school. I urge you to look at these pictures often for inspiration.

We would also love for you to leave a comment on how these pictures make you feel. Share your thoughts, feelings, or ideas. Write a poem, send them a quick hello, give life to these images with your words. The commitment has been made, now we work…

Sunday’s keynote was very successful. Both Claire and Bisrat gave presentations. Claire gave a presentation on her life and her work in Ethiopia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Uganda and many more places. First, she told a bit about her life and dyslexia. From there she jumped to her joining the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She explained her work in the feeding center in Ethiopia and the hard choices she was forced to make, the choices that haunted her for about 20 years later. She told small events that happened in different war zones. She said “War is not the answer“. One of the points she emphasized on was that no matter where you go, no matter who the people are their all humans, and at the end of the day all that matters is “Humanity“.

After Claire’s amazing presentation, Bisrat told a bit about A-Cet and how A-Cet helps kids in Ethiopia. He also showed a ten minute video on A-Cet which also showed the man who started A-Cet, David Stables.Bisrat’s main point was “A little goes a long way”, the more we do the better.

During the Keynote Middle, High and Elementary kids were doing fund raising. The Middle and High school were selling the A-Cet wristbands and Claire’s book “Moving Mountains”. The Elementary had a bake sale. After Claire and Bisrat had presented Mr. Johnston gave Claire and Bisrat each and ASD T-Shirt and in addition gave Bisrat 10 T-Shirt for him to take bake to Ethiopia for the kids in A-Cet. But the biggest news was that the whole school in the past months, through small fund raisers, had raised $5,000. That’s a real good start. All ASD needs is support from everybody out there. Sunday’s Keynote was a great success.

Leila

Tell us what you think if you attended this amazing event. Leave us a comment. Join the conversation!

When our generation of students think of education, we think of university, a nice job, the white picket fence and maybe a dog in there somewhere. When Sammy Ayalew, an A-CET trustee, addresses education, he says “Educate us, and we can develop Africa.”
The African Children’s Education Trust – otherwise known as A-CET – is an independent responsive charity run by efficient, competent and caring volunteers that help vulnerable young Africans reach their potential through education. It was puzzling to read this sentence on the charity’s website, and realize just how little justice this one sentence does to the whole movement. This organization’s professional purpose may be to educate under-privileged African children in order to give them a better chance of surviving in the world today, but many fail to see the amount of love, enthusiasm and pure joy these kids receive and experience through A-CET. Skilled and dedicated volunteers, who do not see a dime in the form of salaries or even a penny spent on professional fundraising, have let A-CET consume their lives in the quest to let these children have what every child should: a chance at life.
This may be fanciful thinking, or I could just be exercising my rhetoric, but the best thing about this whole charity – it works. In less than 10 years they have grown from supporting just seven youngsters to now supporting over two thousand, principally Ethiopians. They award long-term scholarships, have set up four Computer Training Centres for high school girl leavers and have constructed two rural community elementary schools. They work though an Ethiopian partner NGO (The Ethiopian Youth Educational Support, EYES) which was set up and is run by ex-A-CET students.
David, the chairman and founder of A-CET, wrote on his website a very interesting part that sums up exactly why this charity works:

“Forget Millennium Development Goals with international politicians’ platitudes - none of which are on target. Forget hefty re-hashed reports and empty promises. Forget billions in squandered aid budgets, reports of corruption and the professional “fat cat” aid set. Education is the future for Africa: real targeted development at community level for Africans by Africans. With minimal outlay through A-CET and negligible overheads, we can produce maximum impact and output. We don’t talk about it, we empower Ethiopians and let them get on with it. It’s no secret formula, only common sense. Listen to what the Africans want, assess, get the funds to facilitate - and then let the Africans implement it.”

The relatively modest support A-CET receives is making an absolutely life-changing difference to thousands of young lives and should never be under-estimated. We need to start realizing that this charity needs our help. A-CET needs our help. And these children need our help. Today. Now. And from all of us. The same principal from home is applied here - sharing is caring, and whether it be the last Hershey bar, or a few more cents and seconds spent on A-CET and Africa, every bit counts.

by priyanka
Another viewpoint:

A-CET, or the African Children’s Educational Trust, is a trustworthy group of people that volunteer to help kids like us get a better education in Africa. Thousands of destitute, and suffering children that have lost their parents, money, and have no home have been helped by A-CET. Lots have gained scholarships, and some youngsters have gone to other places in the world to gain more knowledge and experience. None of them have forgotten a place like A-CET, which helped them strive to reach their goals of becoming educated in a poverty-stricken place like Africa, throughout their childhood. More than ninety percent of the money they make goes directly to help the kids. None of it is wasted on idle things.
A-CET’s main goal was very simple: Make a difference in the world. Now look how far they’ve come with just a straightforward mission. David Stables was the man behind all this. He took an uncomplicated goal and made it into something colossal. He runs A-CET just out of a small room in his house. They don’t need a mansion, or imported items from the US to be successful. They just needed a dream, and determination behind it. A-CET doesn’t even have fundraisers; instead they receive donations and get charity. A bit of money to you may be a lot to a needy African child without an education. All they need from us is our support, and a good will behind it. Are you willing to help?
by Nishat

We have  added our About page at the top of this blog. So you can direct people to it if they ask what we are all about. Thank you Julian for writing such a great summary of our work:

Our goal of the global issues club is simple but challenging. We decided that we would partner up with ACET (African Children’s Education Trust) and help build a school in Ethiopia. The school would have four rooms and would cost about $50,000. It would help children that would otherwise have no education receive one, and have hope for a better future.

We decided to build a school because we believe that education is key to ending the cycle of poverty. You see if one little boy or girl who has nothing, receives an education he/she could hope to get into college and from there get a degree so he/she could get a well paying job and no longer live in poverty. We hope to help many little boys and girls so that they could aspire to live a better life.

We have started raising our money by selling ACET wristbands so while we also gain funds we can also spread awareness about ACET and poverty. We have also given presentations to the children of our school to help them realize how they can help stop poverty in our world. Now we have Clair Bertschinger coming to our school and she will talk to the school and the community about ACET and poverty and we hope that she will be a huge inspiration to our school, our community, and us so that we will build a school in Ethiopia.

Hello teachers and community at ASD, as you know students at ASD have thrown their support behind African Children’s Educational Trust (A-CET), an Ethiopian charity that supports the education of thousands of children.  The middle and high school students have made a commitment to raise funds to support the building of a four-room schoolhouse in Ethiopia through A-CET.  These students have been working diligently to raise funds and awareness about the program.

As a part of their campaign to raise awareness, ASD is excited to welcome two inspirational members of the organization to visit the school in January.

Claire Bertschinger is the author of Moving Mountains, a powerful book describing Claire’s experiences as an International Red Cross nurse during the 1984 famine in Ethiopia.  Her work in Ethiopia was covered by the BBC and inspired Live Aid, the largest global relief effort in history.

Bisrat Mesfin is the epitome of what A-CET aims to achieve.  As a famine survivor in Ethiopia, he was sponsored by A-CET, and therefore able to obtain a college degree.  He now serves as the onsite manager for A-CET in Ethiopia.

We are hoping to get as many members of the ASD community involved with the program as possible.  There are several ways to become a part of this exciting opportunity:

•    Read Moving Mountains!  Copies are available in the library, or you can buy your own copy online and have Claire sign it when she’s here!
•    Visit A-CET’s website to learn more about the organization
•    Mark your calendar to attend an evening with Claire and Bisrat during their visit!  Claire will share a keynote address and be available to sign books.

Sunday, January 20, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.

And most importantly stay connected here on our blog. Read our posts and bookmark this page or subscribe with a feeder to stay updated on what we are doing. Comment on what you read and share your feelings, thoughts, and ideas. It’s from these conversation that change will grow.  Share what you see with as many people as you can. Let’s raise awareness and form networks to build this school in Ethiopia.  We hope to have a brief film about Claire and Bisrat’s visit so stay tuned.

In the meantime, don’t be shy. Leave a comment to let us you were here; show your support. What are you looking forward to the most? What do you want to get from this visit?

Who is Claire Bertschinger? Well, for starters, we know she’s a nurse who went into the poorer, war-wracked part of Africa to work in feeding centers to help save the dying. We know she won the Florence Nightingale Award, as well as the Woman of the Year award, the BISH medal from the Scientific Exploration Society, and the Human Rights and Nursing award. And of course, behind every medal is the unforgettable story.

As a young child, Claire was troubled by a severe form of dyslexia. In school, she struggled with having to read out loud and trying to keep up with her classmates. No one had any idea what she had, and just assumed she was slow and dim-witted. Even with dyslexia, she managed to graduate and become a nurse. She felt the urge to do something big, to really get into the dirt and grime and help, which brought her to Ethiopia.

In Ethiopia, war, famine, and starvation roamed the land and tortured the people mercilessly. As Claire was driven to the feeding station she would be working at, they passed many ruined, destitute people just lying on the side of the road, raising an arm thin as a pencil to wave for them to stop, begging for help with grief stricken eyes. When they had gone past quite a few, never stopping, Claire asked why they did not stop. The driver simply said that they if they stopped for everyone, they would have enough resources for nobody very quickly. She was silent after this revelation.

At the feeding center, she met her colleagues, and was given her tasks. She would have to choose a certain number of people to bring into the center everyday, feed, bathe, and clothe them. So, everyday, she went outside to chose, basically, who would live or die. She had to leave thousands of people outside every time.“I felt like a Nazi sending people to death camps,” she had said.

Sometimes the ones she brought in, fed, medicated, then let out would come back within a couple days, just as hopelessly dismal and diseased as before. But the ones who did not come back, those lives were changed immensely, and were finally given a chance to really live. That is what she did. She made lives real lives, and was strong enough to continue doing so even with the constant rejection of others. Sir Geldof once said of her,
“She had become God-like, and that is unbearable for anyone.” These choices she had to make haunted her everyday, tormenting her inside.

A journalist came by one day to interview her, and asked her how it felt to have to choose. She replied by saying that it broke her heart. This was a brave, intelligent, woman who did what we wish we had the guts to do ourselves. She risked her life everyday, was shot at and in close contact with horrible diseases. Just try to imagine, you’re in a desolate landscape, and dragging a man with one arm blown off by a land mine, stomach bloated by starvation, into your beaten up truck, and bullets are whizzing past your ears only a hair’s width away.

When Claire does come, it will be important not only to get to know her accomplishments, but we will need to know her personally to fully understand what happened over there. How she feels, even simple things like what she does now when she is alone. She is going to be the person you remember meeting and talking to for the rest of your life.

Don’t forget to read Claire Bertschinger’s book, Moving Mountains!

You can also fin more information here, here, and here.

Jesse K.

More on Claire:

“In her was vested the power of life and death,” said Bob Geldof about one of the most impacting International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) nurses, Claire Bertschinger. During this time (1984-85), Claire Bertschinger was stationed in Mekele, Ethiopia and her responsibility was to choose the few children out of the hundreds begging at her feet to be admitted into the ICRC’s small and under-equipped health station in the area. Claire has encountered herself in many similar situations in which the responsibilities facing her are far greater than many could handle. She has visited countries including Ethiopia, Lebanon, Kenya, and Afghanistan where she has given people hope, care, and happiness.
Throughout her journeys, Claire Bertschinger has been awarded a series of awards including the BISH medal from the Scientific Exploration Society in 1986, the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1991, the Woman of the Year Award in 2005, and the Human Rights in Nursing Award from the International Centre for Human Rights and Nursing Ethics in the year 2007. Not only is she an inspiration to everyone helping others, but she was also the inspiration for the hugely successful 1985 Live Aid concert created to raise funds and awareness for famine relief in Ethiopia.
Claire Bertschinger has made an immense difference in the lives of many people and has saved many lives. A more detailed progression of her life can be found in her autobiography titled “Moving Mountains.”

Even more on Claire:

Who really is Claire Bertschinger?

Well, Claire is just a nurse for many people, but she’s more than just a nurse. Claire has been a pilot, nurse (of course!), a helper and for most a “God”.

Claire has been dyslexic since her childhood. After, she graduated from high school she finally became a nurse. It was really unimaginable for a dyslexic person to become a nurse, but she still achieved her goal. Claire was working for the International Red Cross. In 1984, she had the most challenging moments of her lifetime.

In 1984, Claire was sent to the famine in Ethiopia. In 1985, while Claire was featured in Michael Buerk’s BBC’s report on the region, which led to the biggest BBC’s coverage of Ethiopia’s famine was of Claire surrounded by 85,000 starving people, having the terrible task of choosing which children to allow into the Feeding center, and which were too far gone to be saved. Claire has also fought to save lives in many other places including Lebanon, Afghanistan, Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Claire has also received many awards for her commendable performance, such as the Woman of the year award. Claire wrote a book about her inspirational life, which is called Moving Mountains. Moving mountains is a remarkable story of courage, commitment and compassion.

“Bertschinger’s courage is matched only by her conviction; a beautiful story that needs to be read.”
Janine di Giovanni, author of Madness Visible

Such a remarkable and courageous woman is coming to ASD! Claire is going to come here in Qatar on Jan 20th and 21st. As the Global issues club, we can ask Claire amazing questions about her lifetime! Bisrat (the person who runs A-cet) will also come with Claire.

Claire and Bisrat are also going to deliver keynotes at 7:00 P.M, on the 20th of January.

Everyone is really excited about their visit.
Hope they have a good time!!

By: Shahzeb

A-CET Wristbands

Some of you might have been wondering what these yellow green and red wristbands that everyone are wearing are for, and the explanation is simple. Here at ASD we have been trying to raise money to build a school in Ethiopia with A-CET, or African Children’s Educational Trust. We are doing this because we think that the best thing to do to stop the cycle of poverty in Ethiopia is to educate the children, because they are the future.

The first fundraiser we did was selling these wristbands. Not only is this a great fundraiser but it also raises the school’s awareness of what we are doing and how to help. Our goal is to put one of these wristbands on every student at ASD, from the elementary to the high school, and if we can that will be a huge accomplishment.

On the wristbands, it says education for all, liberty, and development, and the colors represent the Ethiopian flag. They are sold for a minimum donation of 5 QR, but feel free to donate more, and you can by them from anyone in the Global Issues Club. This is a small easy way to help and anyone can do it so buy them soon and help stop poverty in Ethiopia.

-Katie ☺

more…

Over the past few days the Global Issues Club (GIC), in the Middle School, have been trying to sell the African Children Educational Trust (ACET) wristbands to anyone they can find. Most of us know that the GIC is helping ACET build a school in Ethiopia. So as one of the first and small fundraisers GIC decided to sell the wrist bands. Having the colors of the Ethiopian flag, the wristbands say “Education for all, Liberty and Protection”, in the Ethiopian language. The GIC’s goal was to get everyone in the middle school wearing one. After the grade presentations, in which each grade was told about ACET and GIC, the wrist bands were sold. But even before the Presentations most of the Club members were wearing it along with many other students, even though most of them had no idea what they were doing and how they were helping. The GIC hasn’t counted how much money they made but a few days ago I saw it in a pile and it was quite a lot. For those of you who haven’t bought one you should and if you have one go ahead and buy another. The minimum donations is QR5 but go ahead and donate more, it’s for a good cause. Besides this just a small fundraiser out of the many that will happen the rest of the year, until the GIC reaches there goal.

Laila