Mineola Students Team Up to Help Students in Africa

ninth graders recently teamed up with third graders at the to participate in a student-led literature-based project that helped raise money and awareness.

After reading the novel “Chanda’s Secrets,” that focuses on the life of a young girl growing up in Africa, conducting research on life in Africa and listening to a lecture by Mark Grashow, the founder of the U.S. Africa Children’s Fellowship, students from Dr. Maureen Connolly’s English class taught the younger students about the importance of having access to education, especially in areas such as Zimbabwe, where resources are severely limited.

Each of the elementary students was asked to design a jar, which they would use to collect money they raised for improving school conditions in Zimbabwe by doing chores around the house.

The jar donations will benefit the U.S. Africa Children’s Fellowship, whose mission is to inform local students on the issues with education in Africa and empower them to help.

“Everybody can help,” Fellowship founder Mark Grashow explained to the students. “Whether you bring in a soccer ball, pencils or an old sports uniform; it will all go to good use in Africa.”

Monies raised by students will go toward the building and renovation of schools in Africa, as well as to purchase and ship supplies to the more than 200 schools educating 70,000 children there.

To date, the schools have raised more than $2,000 thanks to donations from State Farm and Charity Champions (an MSG Varsity organization). The fundraising will continue through the end of February.

Mineola High School has been working with Grashow, a retired educator from Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, for more than 15 years, conducting such service-learning projects during that time.