Jessica Crawford

Dear Editor, 

I don’t know about you, but I was holding my breath yesterday hoping for the day off. An extra day off of school? Yes, please!

But in all honesty, I take for granted that I’m able to go to class every day. That it’s safe for me to walk back and forth from where I live to where I need to be. That I have supplies that are up-to-date and fit for studying with. Because that’s not the reality for so many people around the world. 

I’m not going to be dramatic, but here is the reality in one of those places where education is not such a luxury. 

In Northern Uganda, for the last 23 years, they have been living in constant fear and chaos. The Lord’s Resistance Army [LRA], a rebel army hoping to overthrow the government, has been raiding villages, kidnapping children and killing for my entire lifetime. There are children there who know nothing but a state of war and terror. 

You can imagine how this has affected their education system. Villages have been torn apart, and if the children are not kidnapped they are forced to flee to internally displaced person’s camps scattered throughout the country. Chaos rules in the camps, and there is no chance of a legitimate education being offered to the children — and they’re the better-off ones. The children who did not make it out of the villages are trained to fight in the LRA, where they witness brutalities no one, let alone a developing child, should be forced to see. 

The LRA has now migrated to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan, causing the same problems there they have in Uganda. And while Uganda still lives in fear of their return, they have started to rebuild. Part of that rebuilding is being done through an organization called Invisible Children and their Schools for Schools campaign. Iowa State University is partnered with a small secondary school in Gulu, Uganda: Gulu Secondary School. The money we raise goes directly to their school, to ensure they can receive the best and safest education possible. December 10th, Invisible Children presented us with a challenge: One for One. Think if every student donated $1. Think of the difference we could make.

So, I challenge you and your friends to try it. Grab your floor, roommates, greek houses, etc, and toss in a dollar or two or five. Send it in to Invisible Children — 1620 Fifth Ave. Suite 400, San Diego, California, 92101 — with a note saying it’s from Iowa State, or log on to www.invisiblechildren.com and donate online. If you have any questions e-mail me at [email protected]. 

Let’s be a part of something huge.

Jessica Crawford is a senior in child, adult and family services