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June 25, 2010
Uniting communities
Students build relationships with Ugandan Jews.
SUSAN J. KATZ
“Imagine that! Two African communities come together and dialogue – through a KDHS meeting,” said Rabbi Daniel Siegel, Judaic coordinator at Vancouver’s King David High School.
Siegel was referring to the KDHS student-led Abayudaya committee that recently brought together Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, spiritual leader of Uganda’s Abayudaya Jewish community, and Tererai Trent, a humanitarian and education activist originally from Zimbabwe, to find a way to help support the agriculturally based community of the Abayudaya.
“Being in a pluralistic Jewish day school, I thought it important to deepen and broaden our students’ understanding of the diversity of the Jewish community and to reach out, even across the world, to help fellow human beings in need,” said Siegel. It was out of this desire that Siegel thought of the idea for the KDHS Abayudaya committee, whose aim is to support the educational needs of Abayudaya youth.
KDHS students were each matched with a student from the Semei Kakungulu High School in Uganda, and each KDHS student each raised $100 in order to provide one year of education, three meals a day and, if necessary, a dormitory placement for their match.
The KDHS students have participated in a variety of fundraising endeavors. One was in conjunction with Beth Israel Synagogue last November. A voice ensemble, led by BI Cantor Michael Zoosman, performed traditional songs with KDHS students and parents, when Sizomu’s brother, the Grammy Award-nominated J.J. Keki, visited Vancouver as part of a North American speaking tour.
After Passover, the school held its annual Teaching for Tomorrow gala, with the theme “Education Against All Odds: Tales of Triumph.” Sharing their stories of beating the odds to receive a world-class education were Anya Romanet, a young woman who, with the help of the Jewish community, immigrated to the United States from Moldova, recently graduating from Connecticut College, and Trent, who now works for Heifer International, a nonprofit society whose mission is to end hunger, with the “idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief.” Sizomu, a guest at the KDHS gala, and Trent have since started to look for ways to improve the Abayudaya’s economic base and allow for better educational opportunities.
Siegel and KDHS students are also spearheading support for the agricultural and social environment of the Abayudaya in other ways. In a KDHS-sponsored coffee co-op, community members and KDHS parents were able to sign up at the school gala to buy coffee from Mirembe Kawomera, which means “Delicious Peace” in the Luganda language.
Mirembe Kawomera was started in 2003 by Keki and, with the assistance of Laura Wetzler from U.S.-based Kulanu, 750 Ugandan Jewish, Christian and Muslim farmers formed a cooperative in their villages to do business while spreading a message of peace. The coffee is organic, kosher and halal.
Siegel added, “In addition to individual students bringing in $100 or whatever they could afford, we raised money through hot dog sales, TCBY and cookie sales.” A parent advisory committee (PAC) Shopfunds gift-card program was directed by KDHS PAC co-presidents Pam Wolfman and Deborah Youngson and the cookie sales were driven by three Vancouver Talmud Torah siblings and friends of KDHS students, who volunteered to bake 500 cookies, which were sold in one day, leading to a second successful bake sale. In total, with the coffee sales, community gathering and student projects, more than $12,000 has been raised for the Ugandan Jewish community.
In the works is a student exchange program, where KDHS students will be able to travel to Mbale, Uganda, and stay with the Abayudaya community. The hope is that they will learn firsthand what the needs are in a rural African community and will be able to provide tutoring to school-age children. In the exchange, Abayudayan students will come to Vancouver to experience educational opportunities to take back with them.
Siegel hopes this exchange will create a real bond between the communities, becoming a “transformative experience.” Hopefully, he said, some students “will go on to humanitarian careers, like with Doctors Without Borders, or have other professions that have a humanitarian element.”
Mirembe Kawomera coffee can be purchased through KDHS. Contact Siegel at [email protected] for information.
Susan J. Katz is a Vancouver freelance writer, educator, editor and award-winning poet.
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