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Schools

A world away, in geography only

By MARYAN PELLAND
Published January 11, 2007

Concerned about the plight of kids in Uganda, some Hernando County students are reaching out in a mushrooming effort to turn awareness into action.

It actually began in 2003, when three California college students went to Africa looking for a story for their film documentary. They found themselves stranded in northern Uganda, eyeball to eyeball with a tragedy.

Children as young as 4 were being conscripted as weapons in an ongoing war. Youngsters, abducted from their bush homes were, and still are, forced to fight as soldiers.

The film, called Invisible Children: Rough Cut exposes how a 20-year war is affecting northern Uganda's young people. It was originally screened by its creators, Bobby Bailey, Laren Poole and Jason Russell, for friends and fellow students in June 2004. Practically before they shut off the projector, it began showing in high schools, colleges and religious institutions.

It will land here, at Nature Coast Technical High School, on Jan. 29 for two screenings.

The film has galvanized people across America to action and last spring touched then-Powell Middle School eighth-grader Kristin Gousse.

Kristin said, "I saw something about it on Channel One - our school news channel. Then a couple days later it was on Oprah. I knew I had to do something."

Kristin approached her principal and her teacher, Marguerite Kling, with a plan. She wanted to hold a fundraiser. She and some friends made more than $500 selling doughnuts.

It might have ended there, but it didn't. The doughnut missionaries couldn't let the idea go.

Kling, coordinating this year's efforts with students at Nature Coast Technical, said, "These kids learned firsthand that you can take action and make a difference. An incredible lesson."

Kristin and classmate Kaitlin Julia have taken the project to Central and Springstead high schools. Powell students are still committed. Nature Coast kids heard about Ugandan kids from freshmen who came from Powell.

At Nature Coast, freshman Peter Kennedy created and produced a T-shirt designed to link Hernando County to Ugandan kids. He sent shirts to the filmmakers who took them to Uganda and gave them to kids known as "night commuters."

Night commuters are children living with their families in simple rural homes, but they spend little time as families. They're running for their lives. The children walk 5 or 10 miles to towns before nightfall so they don't get kidnapped from their own beds.

Some walk back after school the next day, if they're lucky enough to have a school. Or supplies, books or teachers.

The shirts were aimed at linking them to someone in the world who cares. Kling said. "It has become all about kids helping kids. The adults are in the background."

In Hernando County, the project will spread further. Without much fanfare, kids all are brainstorming, working and organizing. Kling says they are saving lives. It's not an exercise, it's for real and it's working.

Some of the filmmakers will come to the Jan. 29 screening to talk about the film, have lunch with local students and discuss the problem and the solution.

School district adult coordinators want the project to stay in students' hands. They call it "magnificent" that young people can sustain a crusade of such magnitude.

Said Kling, "They can make a difference - whether it's this project or something else they care about. Kids need to know their power. People like Kristin and Peter and the others do now."

The chain is growing, she explained, getting stronger. The plan, created by students, is to screen the film to about 500 concerned parties and then kick off a mega fundraising effort. Kristin said it won't be about one school, or one club or one person. It's about the chain.

When representatives of Invisible Children return here in March, Hernando County children will entrust a sum of money to them for the kids in Uganda. It'll be for school supplies, medicine, books, anything that will help. Then they'll plan the next steps to sustaining the momentum.

"Think of it. College kids stumble on this story. Our kids stumble on the film. Change, real change, happens. It's pretty amazing. It's pretty moving," Kling said.

About the movie

For additional information on the movie, visit www.invisiblechildren.com. Call Marguerite Kling at Nature Coast Technical, 797-7010, for screening information.

[Last modified January 11, 2007, 07:03:50]