Harriton High School students fundraise for high school in Darfur
To an auditorium full of Harriton High School students in Rosemont, the classrooms Susan Burgess-Lent described were almost unimaginable.
Harriton High School students fundraise for high school in Darfur
To an auditorium full of Harriton High School students in Rosemont, the classrooms Susan Burgess-Lent described were almost unimaginable.
In the Darfur region of Sudan, children attend classes in huts, warmed to an uncomfortable 120 degrees. There are mats to sit on, no computer labs and little access to water. Toilets with running water are less than a rarity and very few kids go beyond eighth grade.
Program director of the Darfur Peace and Development Organization, Burgess-Lent visited Harriton students, parents and faculty Thursday to take another step to improving the conditions for Darfurian children, who’ve grown up in Internally Displaced Persons camps due to the genocide in the region.
As part of the World Affairs Club at Harriton, students raised $2,000 as a part of its Gems Not Genocide Program. The money will go toward continuing construction on a high school in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, called Gangy High School.
“You’re doing a rare thing,” Burgess-Lent said. “You’re involved with one of the most important issues of our time.”
Gems Not Genocide began last year, when then-freshman Abri Bernstein began going table to table in the lunchroom asking if anyone had any interest in helping a cause far from students’ homes along the Main Line. Bernstein, who moved to the Lower Merion School District from Harrisburg, Pa., in seventh grade, soon caught the attention of new friends and Christine Jawork, who teaches world affairs, Asian studies and psychology at Harriton.
Also the adviser for the school’s World Affairs Club, Jawork encouraged Bernstein to pursue the fundraising initiative. Gems Not Genocide started making jewelry from broken and recycled pieces and selling it to raise money to provide aid to Darfur.
Soon enough, more and more students joined the cause. Aside from making jewelry, the burgeoning club – more than 100 students are now members – organized fundraisers through a local nail salon and frozen yogurt business.
“It’s an amazing cause,” said Bernstein, whose interest in Darfur sparked after watching the documentary film, “The Devil Came on Horseback.”
“It made me really want to do something,” she said.
Support from Bernstein’s parents and an ambition unseen by Jawork during her 16 years of teaching helped propel Gems Not Genocide forward.
“She’s one of a kind,” Jawork said of Bernstein. “It’s unusual to fund someone so passionate and driven.”
Bernstein and Jawork agreed the program will continue to grow. Only a sophomore, Bernstein is already building a larger interest base at the high school for after she graduates, and the club is working on a website to sell its jewelry beyond promoting it within the school, at local fairs and by word of mouth.
To keep the initiative going, Gems Not Genocide is asking voters to bring their old jewelry and jewelry boxes to the Election Day. The group needs more material to create additional pieces so it is setting up a table at the Harriton polling location, 600 N. Ithan Ave.
To learn more about Gems Not Genocide, check out Lower Merion School District’s video, which interviews the three committees of the program: fundraising, advertising and jewelry. If you’d like to contact the club, email gemsnotgenocide@gmail.com, follow them on Twitter or like them on Facebook.
