Students launch Africa Hunger Alert. (International Grassroots Campaign).

Every autumn, my 12th grade German-language students, together with our German club, choose an international crisis and then adopt a plan of action to solve it. This year, we decided that we had to do something about the famine that currently threatens some 40 million Africans, many of them children, with death by starvation.

Coupled with the AIDS pandemic in Africa, we believe famine is the most severe problem facing the world today. Shockingly, at least here in the United States, it gets little or no press coverage on the evening news or in the newspapers. We learned that in order to prevent millions of deaths, more money was needed; therefore, our mission was simple--to raise awareness of the problem and raise money.

We were often asked how the German-language students came to be involved in this project. First, students of a foreign language gain an appreciation of foreign cultures and start to see themselves as global citizens who do not see a crisis outside of their borders as "not our problem'. One of the many ways we promote global citizenship is by hosting German exchange students every spring and travelling to our sister high school in Germany every summer. Most of my students have been both hosts to exchange students in their homes and guests in Germany as well. Secondly, as students, it is our duty to act when people are suffering. We do an extensive unit on the holocaust, and many of my students are motivated afterwards to help others in need, to speak out and take action. One of the lessons of the holocaust is that good people cannot just stand by and let terrible things happen to other people, and we are using these lessons from German history to make a more positive world today.

We chose to work on the African problem, because the problems in that continent tend to be ignored. As American Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia stated: "Does anyone really believe that the world would turn a blind eye if this crisis were unfolding in France or Australia?"

We began our project in September 2002 by collecting change in our lunchroom and aluminum cans to recycle. After researching various aid agencies, we decided to send all the proceeds to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

In November 2002, when the situation began to deteriorate, especially in Ethiopia, we decided to hold a candlelight vigil to raise awareness and money. We e-mailed people in WFP advising them of our plans and asking for assistance with the project. A few days later, Trevor Rowe, WFP chief spokesman, called and told us that WFP wanted to help, and also informed us that our project and the work of other private individuals and school communities inspired the Africa Hunger Alert, the launch of which coincided with our vigil on 16 December 2002. Africa Hunger Alert is a grassroots effort to connect and inspire various groups and individuals who are working to combat famine and raise the awareness of the situation. Our small project had become an international campaign to help millions of victims of the vast hunger crisis in Africa.

With the help of WFP, we were interviewed by Reuters and the South African Broadcasting Corporation, and had the good luck of publicizing our story in the local newspaper, The Arnold/Imperial Leader, and the Jefferson County section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Our local NPR affiliate also ran a short segment about our vigil on the local morning news. However, we were not as fortunate in getting local television news programmes interested in our story. This is a difficult time to bring attention to a famine--it is difficult to compete with Iraq and North Korea for news time--and we were disappointed because we knew that raising awareness equalled saving lives.

Our vigil went well, although turnout was light, but it was a special evening nonetheless. One of my students wrote the lyrics, composed the music and sang an original song about the famine. We also had a short film from WFP on display. Our keynote speakers included Father Tom Wyrsch, a Catholic priest who works with immigrants in St. Louis (the event was non-religious), and Lynn Hamilton, a staff aide for Congressman and Presidential-hopeful Richard Gephardt. The generosity of those who attended was humbling; for example, our school custodian listened in on our vigil and donated $100. Many believe that we suffer from "donor fatigue", but how would we know that, considering few people in the United States even know about the famine or that 40 million people could lose their lives.

Raising awareness about the famine is a challenge. One of our ideas is to put a human face on the tragedy.

Fayo Hadji Edao is an eight-year-old boy who lives in Dir Fakar, Ethiopia and is certain that he and his siblings will die during this famine. He enjoys school, which is 12 kilometres away from his home, but now he cannot attend it. His mother spends four hours each day fetching water from the nearest source for him and his four siblings. lust as Anne Frank has become the symbol of the Holocaust, we believe that Fayo could become the poster child for the famine in Africa. We saw a report about him on the BBC and he is what inspired our work and became the spirit of our candlelight vigil. The sheer numbers of those dying is a statistic and we need a human face on this tragedy to motivate the world to act. We can only hope that Fayo is still alive.

Kids learn through action. A project like this teaches them about our world, politics, geography, cultures, the media, the United Nations and how to be an involved citizen both locally and globally.

The promotion of our democratic ideals and global citizenship is the most important thing schools can do. Making a difference in the world will have a lasting change in my students which drilling for a standardized test could never replace.

We are still collecting aluminum cans, and we are hoping to help others who are interested in staging events to help the famine. We are also hoping that celebrities who care about this issue will become involved in order to raise awareness about the famine. We can be contacted through our website (www.famineafrica.com).

RELATED ARTICLE: UNICEF Online Campaign for Girls' Education

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in conjunction with a leading pan-European children's entertainment company, launched on 4 April an online campaign to collect pledges in support of its drive to get more girls into school. The campaign was developed jointly as part of the overall partnership between UNICEF and Fox Kids Europe (FKE) to promote the "Go Girls! Education for Every Child" programme, a major part of the UN agency's initiative to get by 2005 more girls into school in 25 priority countries.

"Far too often, girls are denied the chance to go to school, to learn in a safe and protective environment, to be taught by well-trained teachers, to be treated fairly and as equals", UNICEF Director of Communications Marjorie Newman-Williams said. "The pledge campaign calls on the world to help us give both boys and girls the same opportunities."

The campaign has five points which outline what it takes to ensure that every child has the best possible education: the best start in life, the best schools, the best teachers, safety, protection and fairness. To make a pledge, supporters can log on to any of the twelve dedicated and fully localized Fox Kids Cup micro-sites worldwide. Those interested can make their pledge until the Fox Kids Cup 2003 international finals, to be held from 22 to 26 June in the Netherlands. UNICEF, however, plans to continue collecting pledges through various alternative methods over the next two years.

The Fox Kids Cup is a six-a-side football tournament for girls and boys under 13 years of age. It will be the biggest in its history, with close to one million players taking part. FKE and UNICEF first teamed up last year to promote the "Say Yes for Children" campaign, an initiative in which over 94 million people pledged support for ten basic principles to protect and improve childrens' lives.

Alan Kirby teaches German at Seckman High School in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. He is currently working on his M.Ed. in educational administration. The Africa Famine Alert campaign grew out of an initiative proposed by Mr. Kirby