moellerwired ...for service, peace and justice
Moeller Students To Visit Ugandan Brother School By Tyler Frankenberg ’08, Crusader Editor in Chief THIS JUNE, a small group of Moeller students, faculty, and parents affiliated with the dynamic service organization, Unified for UNIFAT, will undertake a ground-breaking summer service trip to the war-torn and famine-ridden Central African nation of Uganda. The trip will mark Moeller’s first visit to its Ugandan brother school, the Upper Nile Institute for Appropriate Technology (UNIFAT). Those visiting Uganda include Billy Yates ’08, Eric Werner ’09, alumnus Will Tardio ’07, Unified for UNIFAT moderator Connie Ring, religion teacher/alumnus Paul Kindt, and Sycamore High School Unified for UNIFAT student coordinator Megan Marth. Parents Chris Tardio and Tom Marth will accompany the students on the trip. The purpose of the trip is to strengthen Moeller’s bonds with the students at UNIFAT. This school located in Gulu, Uganda, provides a refuge for its students who would otherwise be vulnerable to abduction by factional armies waging civil war. It also provides students with the highest-quality educational opportunities available in the severely impoverished African nation. This year, 30 Moeller Mentor Groups sponsored an individual UNIFAT student, paying the $300 that cover school tuition, meals,
clothing, and school supplies. Many Mentor Groups have also sent care packages with letters and badly needed pencils and paper, as well as photographs and Moeller T-shirts. The members of Unified for UNIFAT will use high-definition video equipment purchased from a grant from Moeller’s Youth Philanthropy Council to make an informational video about Students of Abitimo Odongkara’s school in Northern Uganda. UNIFAT and Uganda through which they can better inform students at Moeller and bites that often transmit deadly diseases like elsewhere in Cincinnati about the school and malaria, which is rampant in underdeveloped its needs. They hope that this video will allow African countries. Moeller Mentor Groups to see the change Now, in only its third year, Unified for they have made through their donations and UNIFAT has become one of Moeller’s most care packages. dynamic service organizations. “This has been With proceeds from the Guitar Hero a great year for Unified for UNIFAT,” Ring tournament, Unified for UNIFAT hopes to commented. “We set a goal at the beginning purchase a mosquito net for every student at of the year to raise $40,000 for UNIFAT, UNIFAT. Mosquito nets are a cheap but effecand we anticipate that we’ll be very close to tive protection against nighttime mosquito hitting this mark.”
‘Shantytown’ Teaches About Homelessness “WE ARE NOT HERE to simulate being homeless because that would be silly,” said Mike Moroski, moderator of Shantytown and MACH 1 (Moeller Advocates for Community Housing). “We are here to learn about homelessness and be advocators for (the homeless) as well.” From April 6-8, 30 Moeller students made and lived in cardboard shanties in front of the Brisben Center… In the end, Shantytown had a drastic effect on most of the people who participated this year. Sophomore Brendan Nelson, who attended Shantytown and is also active in MACH 1 said, “Shantytown has affected me so much in a positive way, I will never look at a homeless person the same way again.”
*Source: Crusader, Issue 4, page 3, by Mark Gunza ’10. MOELLER • 9