Anna Lundin holds the book she made, A Puppy Named Waddle, while Rachel Goldense holds her book, The Lonely Penguin. The books were sent to children in Uganda. Submitted Photo
By Kelly Westhoff
How much is a fifth grader capable of understanding about a global humanitarian crisis?
More than many adults might think.
Students in Angie Leitch's and Scott Roiger's fifth grade classes at Hopkins' Eisenhower Elementary recently watched a power point presentation about northern Uganda.
The area borders Sudan and is home to many refugee camps for victims fleeing Darfur.
Every evening, children living in area villages leave their homes carrying blankets and sleeping mats.
The children walk six to 10 miles into the nearest city to pass the night in scantly-supplied shelters. They are safer in the cities as their outlying villages are subject to frequent raids and attacks.
In the morning, the children return, walking, to their villages.
It is estimated that each day more than 40,000 children participate in these walks. The children are called "Night Commuters."
"It was depressing to learn about the children in Uganda," said Dave Leighton, an Eisenhower fifth grader. "It was scary even. They have to walk through the night. In America, we can't even really imagine their lives."
"We're really lucky we don't have to worry about loss of food," Leighton added. "Here we have so many people that are overweight and over there people are dying. They don't have anything to eat."
"My family is from Africa, from Morocco," said Abdel Al-Madioum, another fifth grader, "so I know about people living like that. My family tries to help them. For me, it felt kind of normal to see pictures of the kids in Uganda, but it was still depressing."
"I felt sad that the children had to walk like that every single day," explained Brianna Carter, a fellow classmate. "It's all because there are some people that do bad things. In America we still have to worry about bad people, but at least here we can feel safe. The children in Uganda don't feel safe."
In a gesture of solidarity, the Hopkins fifth graders crafted hand-made picture books for these children. The books will be given to the Night Commuters so that they have something entertaining to look at and do while they are spending restless nights away from their homes worrying about violent attacks on the loved ones they left behind.
The books will also help the children keep up their reading skills.
The picture books will be delivered by Books of Hope, a branch of The Memory Project, which is a nonprofit organization based in Madison, Wisc.
The organization was started by a young American man who spent time studying in Guatemala. While there, he met a Guatemalan man who had grown up in an orphanage. The Guatemalan said that because he hadn't had parents or a family, he'd never had any pictures or mementos of his childhood.
The traveler was so struck by this idea that he returned home to Wisconsin and created an organization in which American art students painted portraits from photographs of children living in underdeveloped countries.
The paintings are given to the children so that they will have something special to cherish from their childhood that depicts their own face.
Books of Hope is the second venture of The Memory Project. Not only are the hand-made picture books sent to children in Uganda, but also to children in India who have been forced into labor.
Angie Leitch, the Eisenhower teacher who taught the Hopkins students about the children in Uganda and guided them in their picture-book making, first learned about Books of Hope through a mass e-mail sent to teachers notifying them of the program. This is the second year her students have participated.
"Last year we actually got letters back from the kids in Uganda that received our books," Leitch said. "The letters told us about life in Uganda. The kids said they had no toys, no safety and no joy. They were so very, very grateful to get the books."
"My students here felt so proud when they read the letters," Leitch said. "They felt like they had really made a difference."
"Fifth graders," Leitch explained, "are more savvy than we think. They are entering a developmental stage where they're starting to think more about others and be aware of other people. They are very motivated to make and send the books because it allows them to be creative and they know their work is going to a meaningful audience."
It took about a week for the fifth graders to make the books. Some students worked individually and others worked in pairs.
The children invented their own stories, first writing them long hand and then typing them.
Once the stories had been typed, the children cut the text into smaller chunks and pasted the on to several pages. Next, they illustrated each page. Lastly, the assembled the pages in order and bound each book.
Dave Leighton and Abdel Al-Madioum worked together to write a story called Trapped on Monkey Island about a surfer that gets swept to sea and lands on a mysterious island with an evil monkey.
The surfer has to outsmart the monkey, fight off a Kraken (a sea monster), and return home.
Brianna Carter wrote a story called I Can't Whistle. It was about a girl who had a pet ferret. One day, the ferret ran away. The girl begins to search for her missing pet.
She tries to catch the animal's attention by whistling, but discovers she doesn't know how. By the end of the story, she learns to whistle and she rescues her ferret.
To learn more about Books of Hope, visit www.booksofhope.org.
Reader Comments
Posted: Sunday, October 12, 2008
Article comment by:
amina
i am so proud of my nephew abdel al madioum.
i did read more than what you wrote about what he said about uganda
