WCA students serve dinner to pastors to raise awareness of albinism

By Collette Hayes

Amber Sands, a student at Windham Christian Academy, says that despite its welcoming, friendly attitudes and beauty of its continent, some of the most challenging problems in the world, such as extreme poverty and terrorism, are found in Africa and one problem, the persecution of people with albinism, isn’t very widely known.

Windham Christian Academy students Amber
Sands and Jake Williams give a presentation
about problems associated with African
albinism during a dinner for local pastors
at the school on March 11.
PHOTO BY COLLETTE HAYES

“In some areas, as many as one in 1,000 people have albinism and live with daily persecution, loneliness, poverty and rejection.” said Sands, age 13.

Sands offered her remarks for pastors and other church leaders gathered for a free African dinner sponsored by the Middle School at Windham Christian Academy last Friday evening. They came to listen and to learn about the challenging circumstances the albino population in Africa continue to face each day.

The event began with dinner and included African recipes selected by the students and made with the help of Sue Hagerstrom, a 5/6 grade teacher and the school’s principal Jaclyn Sands. Students served an appetizing tomato onion salad followed by a Chickpea stew appetizer. The Ugandan Curried Potato entre was deliciously aromatic and a Basbousa coconut cake for dessert completed the meal.

“We got most of the recipes off of the internet,” said Ezra Heath, middle school student at Windham Christian Academy. “It took a lot of sifting through recipes to find African recipes that would work. This is traditional African cuisine.”

According to Rick Hagerstrom, a  middle school teacher at Windham Christian Academy, through the educational approach of service-learning, which supports and deepens existing curriculum and aligns with national and state learning standards, middle school students at WCA took action in raising awareness about albinism in Africa and they gained real-world experience as they applied their leadership, research and problem-solving skills.

“Our class goal with selecting this project was to educate and to show accurately how real the problem in Africa is for these people,” said Rick Hagerstrom. “Also, if possible, through the hope of the gospel, a congregation pastor might get involved and stand up as a light in a dark situation. My original thought was to ship large boxes of sunscreen to Africa to help protect the fragile skin of these people from skin cancer. I then found out that Peter Ash, a pastor in Canada and founder of the organization Under the Same Sun, had already started a sunscreen factory in Africa employing African people to run the company.”

Ash recommended that the WCA middle school students begin the project by reading the book, “Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan, a young adult fiction novel whose main character is a 13-year-old African boy who lives with the challenges of albinism.

“We started the project after reading the book,” said Heath. “The book is about albinos in Africa in the 1980s. We felt it was a great opportunity to further learn about this issue.”

Dinner was followed by an engaging, compassionate, and informative presentation by Windham Christian Academy middle school students who wrote the script and shared facts about the ongoing crisis of living with albinism in Africa.

“Many people in Africa believe people with albinism possess magical qualities and spread lies that albino limbs and bodily organs used in charms and potions bring power and good luck,” said WCA student Jake Williams. “There are several organizations that you can donate to and help the cause of albinism in Africa. One of these organizations is Under the Same Sun founded by Peter Ash. The organization helps to bring hope to these people by providing sunscreen, prosthetics and schooling for young people. Peter Ash once said that education is our greatest weapon against discrimination and the most powerful source for advocating our world toward change. Every dollar donated to Under the Same Sun goes toward children living with albinism. A few generous benefactors cover all of their administration and fundraising costs.” <