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17 Thursday , D ecem ber 2, 2010 O A KVILLE BEA V ER w w w .o akvillebeaver .co m By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The 200 students at New Central Public School are fortunate to have walls, windows, running water and so much more where they learn. However, they understand this is not the case elsewhere in the world. So this year the school, with help from its students and teachers, intends to build a proper school for children in Kenya brick by brick. The school partnered up with the Canadian organization of Free the Children to build a school in the African country where so many chil- dren cannot go to school because there isnt one for them to attend or because they dont have the means. New Central will have to raise $8,500, which it is aiming to achieve this school year. At the entrance to the school, there is a Free the Children poster with 85 bricks on it. For every $100 raised, a brick will be coloured in, until the poster is complete. To kick off the fundraising, the school recently invited representa- tives from Free the Children to make a presentation to students. Jane Bird, of Free the Children, told the students the organization is run by youths to help other youths. She told them 3 billion people live on less than $2 a day and 120 million children dont go to school, that 218 million children have to work and countless children live on the street. Some of those kids dont have moms. They dont have a name or a place to go home to, she said to about 100 of the schools younger students. After giving them the statistics of the millions of children living in poverty, Bird told the students about just one youth. A few years ago when Bird joined Free the Children she went to work in the South American country of Bolivia where she volunteered with students at a school. She said school was in the late evening because in the day the youths worked. The first time she went in with her boss and it was dark and gloomy. The children, who had been working all day, were jumping around and had no interest in learning. There was one boy in the room who really scared her, she said. It looked like he was rolling around in mud or something, she said. He even had dirt on his face and he was missing all his teeth. He was staring at me from the back of the room, giving me those Im-going-to- get-you eyes. She asked her boss if she could do a different job, but he told her no because they had committed to do this three times a week for three months. Here I am having nightmares about kids, who I thought hated me and never wanted to see me again, but we went back every single week, three times a week for three months, she said. The children began to listen and started asking questions and playing games. They even waited for her at the front of the school and walked in together. The kid in the back, he was the first in line. He would even stay after school just to be able to talk to us and tell us about his life, she said. She found out his name was Rolando. He was 23-years-old and was just going to graduate from Grade 3. He was so proud of himself because he finally decided to go back to school, Bird told the students. She added he had been living on the streets since the age of three, but wanted to go to school so he could become a taxicab driver. She said this is just one of the thousands of stories of the individuals being helped by Free the Children. Its not about the huge gesture. Its about the little things. Its about being someones friend when they need it, she said. It was the same reason that Free the Children even started in 1995. Its founder, Craig Kielburger, was 12 at the time and he read a story in the Toronto Star about a 12-year-old, who had been sold into slavery at age four. He spent six years as a carpet weaver and when he was let go he started speaking out against child labour. It was because he was speaking out that he was murdered. Kielburger and his friends formed a group to help children such as the murdered boy and since then the organization has grown to be active in 45 countries and built 650 schools. Bird said building a school is more than that. The $8,500 adopts an entire village. The money builds a school build- ing similar to what children see in Canada. This way they can work without being rained on, without having wind blowing through, Bird said. Another thing that keeps children, especially girls, out of school is water. In some villages children have to walk two to five hours one way to get water and bring it to the village, so Free the Children brings the water to the vil- lage, from a well or other source. Some children still have to work to support the family, so Free the Children provides families with goats so the milk and cheese can be sold on the market, the families can have an income and the children can go to school. And lastly, to ensure all children come to school, the organization pro- vides healthcare, which includes food. Children get fed at school, which keeps them coming. Teacher Alana Carnegie has taken the initiative to involve the school with Free the Children and is working with several other teachers and stu- dents on the projects. In September she took 12 students to Torontos We Day event, where the students got to learn about some of Free the Childrens work in a fun way. Some of those students joined the schools Global Voices group. The teacher showed a video to the students to explain why Kenya was chosen when Free the Children oper- ates in so many countries. You can see from the video how beautiful it is and they want to keep it so beautiful and education will help them keep it that way, she said. The school will hold various fundraising programs throughout the year to help it reach its goal. New Central to build school brick by brick FOR AFRICA: Free the Children's Jane Bird speaks to students at New Central Public School recently at an event that launched the school's efforts to begin raising the $8,500 required to build a school in Kenya. MICHELLE SIU / OAKVILLE BEAVER