Alpharetta Students Raise Money For Uganda Schools

By CHRISTOPHER QUINN www.ajc.com

Images of poverty and man-made disaster in a documentary caught Mick Chaudhary's attention last year.

While he was attending the Georgia Governor's Honors Program, the Alpharetta High School student saw "Invisible Children," a film about the devastating effects of civil war in Uganda.
Chaudhary is a pushover for a good cause. He was already involved in Alpharetta High's Junior Civitan Club, raising money for refugees in Darfur, Africa, and survivors of the Christmas 2004 tsunami that swallowed tens of thousands of lives along Indian Ocean shores.

There is a reason for the soft spot in his heart. Mick lived six years of his childhood in Bombay, India. His father is a telecommunications executive. He has seen with his own eyes the kind of hopelessness that afflicts so much of the world's population.

He is one of the lucky ones, with the family connections and education that brought him when he was in the 8th grade to a better place in life, but he hasn't forgotten the scenes he has seen.
"I realized I can help people who live in this kind of grinding condition on a daily basis," he said.
And when he saw the Uganda documentary, it became his next cause.

Three young, idealistic Americans made the film on a shoestring budget when they visited Africa in 2003. It documents a phenomenon foreign to civilized thinking, but too common in areas of the world suffering from the chaos of civil wars. It shows the plight of children kidnapped and turned into soldiers and of those the pre-adolescent killers prey on, the refugees.

The filmmakers started a nonprofit organization to support a series of schools in northern Uganda, places of hope and human values, where children can be educated or reeducated. They started a program called Schools for Schools for students who want to help raise money for the schools.

Chaudhary contacted the Invisible Children organization and asked them to screen the film at Alpharetta High School. After they did, Mick and about 75 students started a local chapter of Schools for Schools, promising to raise money for kids in Uganda.

They pulled together concerts with local bands, candy sales, spare change drives and dodgeball tournaments. Students attending a homecoming dance paid $2 more per ticket, earmarked for the program.

"It didn't take a lot of up front money to start, and it touched a lot of people's compassion," said Paul McKown, a social studies teacher who had helped lead the Junior Civitans.

And the pennies, nickels, quarters and dollars began to add up over seven months.
Alpharetta High has given $10,700 to Aware Secondary School in Gulu Province through the program. The money buys books, generators, furniture and other necessities for the boarding school of 700 students.

"I was definitely surprised," Mick said of the amount.
"People were as touched as I was and were willing to help," he said.
The Schools for Schools group will continue when Mick begins college at Vanderbilt University next fall. He expects to start a new chapter there.