Schools
District 202 Partnering with Charity to Help High School in Liberia
Unneeded school supplies are being gathered for school that has almost nothing in aftermath of long civil war.
Mr. Charity Foundation has partnered with and a Liberian school to help send unneeded school supplies overseas to help children of a country trying to rebuild after a long civil war.
Plainfield resident Anthony Scala, founder and president of Mr. Charity Foundation, said he has been collecting school supplies that would have otherwise been discarded to help the St. Peter Claver High School in the West African nation of Liberia.
At the end of the school year, Scala collected used pencils, half-empty boxes of crayons, half-filled notebooks and other items from Plainfield schools that children would have tossed in the trash before heading home to summer vacation. He has also collected from the district about 450 outdated health books, old band uniforms and old sports equipment. In all, nearly three-quarters of a two-car garage is filled with items that will help benefit the African school.
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Hassan M. Tall, president of the St. Peter Claver High School Alumni Association, said children of the school will benefit greatly from District 202’s generosity.
“They really need the supplies,” Tall said. “If you put the need on a scale of one to 10, it’s an 11.”
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Liberia’s 14-year civil war left about 250,000 people dead and decimated the country’s economy. It is one of the world’s poorest countries.
During the war, everything was lost, down to the desks, said Michael Wannah, vice president of the St. Peter Claver High School Alumni Association. The association relies on donations from individuals and organizations to help furnish supplies to the school.
The country has been in the process of rebuilding since 2003.
In addition to supplies, the group also collects non-perishable foods, since many of the children have one meal a day and often go to school hungry, Wannah said.
Plainfield East and South high schools, Indian Trail and Aux Sable middle schools, Lakewood Falls, Crystal Lawns and Central elementary schools are among the schools that helped donate supplies for the African school, Scala said. In return, he hopes the Plainfield students will learn more about cultures and diversity.
