Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Somalia starvation spurs students to act Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 15:23:03 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN \HD Somalia starvation spurs students to act \BY Darryl Lynette Figueroa \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Ten-year-old Gerald Gaskins said he couldn't turn the page on pictures of starving, wide-eyed children trapped in famine-ravaged Somalia. "We can't just let them die like that. That could be somebody from our family," the fifth-grader said yesterday. So Gerald, along with his classmates at the Kimball Elementary School at Minnesota Avenue and Ely Place SE, set out to do something about it. Although 70 percent of Kimball students can't afford to pay full price for school lunches, they got to work on a project to help and yesterday presented two checks, worth $250 each, to the Africare Relief Agency and the recently formed Somalia Relief Federation. Their effort, begun in September under the guidance of school counselor Charlene McCamey, solicited $1 contributions from students, $2 each from school staffers and collected more at a Halloween fund-raiser. Gerald, the school president, donated nearly $5 he saved from the snack money he gets from his parents each day. Others who couldn't afford the financial contribution pitched in their time at yesterday's check-giving ceremony, which featured African dances and popular songs. "We've done fund-raising projects before, but it always comes to the school," said Ms. McCamey, who also serves as president of the D.C. Elementary School Counselors Association. "I thought it was important for them to do something to demonstrate values like loving and sharing and giving." As part of that learning, a group of students will also take clothes to a homeless shelter and adopt a grandparent at a nearby nursing home next month, she said. "I could feel no better than this," Gerald said, after presenting the checks at yesterday's ceremony. Forrest P. Branch, constituency development coordinator at Africare, said he appreciated the students' efforts. A late-summer blitz of media attention to Somalia's two-year crisis brought a run of donations that has since slacked off, said Mr. Branch. "Americans will give, but it's tied to the media," Mr. Branch said. "Once the attention falters, so does the help." Africare will use the Kimball school's money to buy and send medicine, cups and bowls, he said. The Somalia Relief Federation, formed less than four months ago by six local Somalians, will add the $250 contribution to a $2,000 pot it collected. The money will be taken to Somalia in early January, said federation President Abdirahman Abdullahi. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM