Students aid Ugandan children

Posted on Mar 27, 2007

By Frank Juliano, March 27, 2007
©2007CONNECTICUT POST (Used with permission)

MILFORD - Uganda's "Invisible Children" have some very visible friends here.

More than 120 Lauralton Hall students have ordered necklaces designed by two of their classmates, with all of the proceeds going to aid the children displaced by that African country's ongoing civil war. 

The effort by Abigail Finck and Kathleen Flaherty, both seniors from Fairfield, is only one of several responses by young women at the college-preparatory school here to the situation half a world away.

When representatives of the grassroots organization Invisible Children showed their documentary detailing the horrors of the years-long conflict at a recent assembly, Lauralton Hall students raised $4,000 for humanitarian programs, including schools, food and medical care for Ugandan children.

Religion teacher Damien Connolly said the group told him that Lauralton collected the most of any Connecticut high school, through the purchase of DVDs of the documentary, T-shirts and bracelets made by Ugandans.

"It's great to see students acting on their desire to help, rather than just talking about it," Connolly said.

Joanna Nicoletti, of Bridgeport, also a senior, is organizing Lauralton Hall students to participate in a national "Displace Me" event in New York City. The Invisible Children organization is sponsoring the outdoor sleep-out to raise awareness about Ugandan families displaced by the violence in their country.

Finck admitted that she had to search for Uganda on a map and then was struck by how small a country it is for all of the suffering going on there. But it was clear to her what she should do next. "How do you see that and NOT help?" she said.

Finck, Flaherty and their friend, Morgan Dunne, a Lauralton Hall senior from Southport, first made a prototype necklace and took orders. The necklaces, with a peace symbol and a military-style dog tag, come in three styles: "Protest" for $9, "Serenity" for $10 and "Outcry" for $12.

The young women are waiting for supplies to arrive and then will make and deliver the necklaces. The Devon Rotary Club, impressed with the students' efforts, donated $350 to pay for the cost of the materials.

All of the money raised will go to Invisible Children's "Schools for Schools" campaign, which helps to build schools in Uganda that also provide refuge from the rebels.

"What happens is that the rebels come at night, kill the parents and abduct the children," Finck said. "Then they brainwash them to be soldiers."

To avoid capture by Joseph Kony's "Lord's Resistance Army," entire families uproot themselves every night and go into the cities to find a safe place to sleep, Flaherty said.

"It doesn't take much money to make a big difference," the Fairfield resident said.

The young women are planning other fund-raisers to help Ugandan children, including a concert at Penfield Beach this summer.

To buy a necklace, call the Lauralton Hall guidance counselor's office at 877-2786. For more information on the Uganda crisis, go to invisiblechildren.com.