Educate! Students Start Their Own Club at Kyangwali Refugee Camp
By William Havemann
In December, 2005, Educate! was proud to welcome another club into its ranks, this one slightly different from all the rest.
Young men and women living in the Kyan-gwali Refugee Camp in Uganda founded the Cuburwa Kyangwali Educate! Refugee Club, an organization aimed at improving conditions in the refugee camp by raising money to buy books for students. The club’s motto: “Peace, Love and Unity to Promote Education” is a testament to the resolve and hope that pervades Educate!’s young African students, and their commitment to promoting positive change in their community through education.
So far, the club has proven astonishingly successful - raising over $65 in just a few months. This feat is especially impressive considering that club members fundraise pri-marily through “diggings”, which require intensive manual labor and pay only 33 cents a day. The leaders of the club have also drafted a charter, enumerating the objectives of the club and the challenges that will be faced along the way.
The club’s three founders are young in-habitants of the Kyangwali camp seeking to take an active role in eliminating illiteracy and poverty in their community. Two of the founders are Educate! students who are now att-ending secondary school with the help of Educate! grants. The other, Benson Wajere, is another young member of the camp so indigent that he himself cannot afford schooling. Educate! is currently considering his applica-tion for a sponsorship.
The courage and initiative shown by members of the Cuburwa Kyangwali Refugee Club are truly astounding given the challenges they face every day. In a community riddled with corruption, malnutrition, disease and poverty, they have united behind a common vision of a better life.
Perhaps the founders of the club say it best: “We have come together to do our level best to […] join hands with other Educate! Clubs, supporters in America and the world at large to eradicate illiteracy and poverty in Africa.” Educate! is proud to play a role in helping these talented students to reclaim their lives, their community and their continent.
Learn more about Benson and COBURWAS at http://www.peopleweaver.com/coburwas/index.php, a site created by an Educate! volunteer.