East. Africa. Coalition. A name not known to many. But that’s what we want to change about it.
I know what you’re thinking. East Africa Coalition? But, I’m not East African. Alas! You don’t have to be East African to join. In fact, none of the roughly 10 members (six of which are officers) are East African! Shocker, I know.
EAC’s true purpose is to help those living in East Africa. We are sponsored by RBHS English teacher Katherine Sasser who has traveled to and worked with the people of Uganda herself. After talking to a few of us about her travels, we decided we wanted to further help these people.
Initially we wanted to focus on helping the people affected by the violence from the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda by partnering with the organization Invisible Children. After some deliberation, however, we decided we didn’t want to limit ourselves. Though Invisible Children was doing a multitude of honorable things, we wanted to be able to work with many different organizations and focus on many different groups of people in need.
Thus, we created the East Africa Coalition.
When brainstorming all of the things we wanted to do with the club, we came up with a hefty list, ranging from raising funds to help Invisible Children put up communication towers to help the people affected by the LRA, to bringing a Ugandan teacher to Columbia and even straying to possibly taking a “mission” trip to somewhere in East Africa. Though these are just ideas, I hope you can get the gist of what we want to do as an organization.
So there you have it: our mission as the EAC. I hope you’ll take the time out to check us out, because I’m almost positive you’ll find that we’re worth your while.
By Trisha Chaudhary