Thanks to the unflinching initiative of Catharina Vogt, right, and students at the Steiner School in Vestfold, south west of Oslo, several Gulu based children and youth now receive funds to cover their school fees and other costs related to their education. In total, some 5770 USD have been fundraised, to be distributed among ten children and youth, in most cases for a minimum of seven years? education. (22-NOV-05)

It was in May this year that Astrid Bjoenness, a teacher at the Vestfold Steiner School, approached the Human Rights House in Oslo, requesting to bring one of her classes of high school students to come and learn by some of us having made the defende of human rights and human rights defenders our full-time professions. Soon thereafter, Bjoenness and some 20 students showed up. In the meantime, HRH?s Niels Jacob Harbitz had made contact with Catharina Vogt, a board member of Amnesty International, and asked her to come and show her recent video and stills, all shot in Gulu, Northern Uganda, so as to bring to life the story of the gross human rights violations that are taking place there.

-Keep the momentum going
Many of the students were so moved by Vogt?s real-life stories that a fundraising campaign was initiated locally, with selling of food at school as one of the main income-generating activities. Over the smmer and through the autumn, ever more students have joined the campaign, and by now, close to 6000 USD have been raised. -The money will be shared among children and youth I came to know during the time I spent in Gulu now almost a year ago, says Vogt, who has visited the Vestold Steiner school several times, to reach more of the students, elaborate on her own stories and keep the momentum of the fundraising going.

-Sell waffles or whatever
This week, the story of the Vestfold Steiner school students? campaign reached the pages of Aftenposten, the main broadsheet newspaper in Norway, where Oda M. M. Roenningen, one of the students had a letter published, expressing her dismay at the atrocities that have been allowed to happen in the north of Uganda now for nearly two decades, that is, since before any of the students involved were born. Roenningen also encourages other students to do whatever they can – sell waffles or whatever – to raise money for education and other necessities that thousands of children in Northern Uganda have missed out on.