School Crisis Update and Thoughts

As I’ve mentioned before our schools have been impacted by an unexpected financial crisis resulting in a 4.7 million dollar deficit.  This was going to result in layoffs of teachers and other school staff in the middle of the school year.  The City Council and School Committee voted unanimously for state legislation  so that on February 1^st, our teachers jobs were reinstated before they  were scheduled to finish their last day of work. 

The commitment to achieve a specific outcome, in this case – save every job – has generated an outpouring of generousity from every corner of our community as well as actions by our school and political leadership.  So far we’ve prevented the loss of about half of the jobs slated for cuts and several more fundraisers are scheduled to save the rest.If you’d like to help:  Attend our Fundraiser – Knights of Columbus Hall on Salem Common between the hours of 2 PM and 10 PM on Saturday, February 16.  There will be entertainment and an auction. A volunteer/donation number has been established. Call 978-750-1110 for information on volunteering time or to donate materials or money for the auction. Donations that can be mailed should go to SOS, C/O 5 West Terrace, Salem, MA 01970. All others should be brought to the front desk at Salem High School between 7 AM and 3 PM until February 14. If those times are not workable please call 978-744-3856 for assistance. Donations can also be made directly to  “The Salem Education Fund” and mailed to: The Salem Education Fund, P.O. Box 4125, Woburn, MA, 01888 or can be made online at www.salem.com.

Education and Our Children

I am currently reading “3 Cups of Tea“.  It is a powerful account of Greg Mortenson’s humanitarian mission to bring education to children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

In an odd way it is also timely.  My daughter attends public school in Salem, MA.   The mayor, parents and administrators are working relentlessly to deal with a unexpected financial crisis to the tune of a 4.7 million dollar deficit resulting in layoffs of teachers and other school staff in the middle of the school year.

So, why would I ever compare the challenges of impoverished children in Pakistan to our children?  Well I often thought as I read Greg’s book that perhaps our children here do not value their education-the privilege of that lost on them.   But in recent weeks during this crisis, what I have witnessed instead is leadership in the face of conflict, unity among the parents to bring about change and the power of our children.   This evening I’ll be attending a special meeting where there will be a vote on funding that has been made available by the governor.  This money would save our teacher’s jobs!  In addition to the state government, this was made possible in large part by the community coming together to fight for their schools, along with large community donations by the North Shore Medical Center, The Salem Rotary (and many others) as well as parents and perhaps the most touching (for me), a fundraiser led by my 6 year old daughter, where children brought in their very own pennies, dimes and quarters to try and save the jobs of their teachers, librarians and paraprofessionals. 

It’s amazing what can happen when people come together.  I’m thrilled to know it is for a common cause-education.  Because education really is the key to our children’s future-in every corner of the world…in Pakistan, in my backyard… everywhere.

Crisis in Kenya

Groots International and Groots Kenya are putting out a call for action to address the violence in Kenya following the elections last month.  Like other conflicts and disasters we are seeing women and children disproportionately affected by the violence.  They are being beaten, raped and burned to death.

A village in the Mathare slum completely razed by fire (www.huairou.org)

The situation report by Groots Kenya can be accessed here.  post_election_violence_situation_in_mathare1.doc

Here is a poem, written by a girl along with her mtoher, who is reaching out to the women and children affected in Nairobi 

As Kenya Bleeds
The mouth of my pen is dry
The ink is shy and the paper untempting
The tears of the nation have drowned my spirits
The fires and fears have imprisoned most
The bullets ringing in the night ushered in the new year
Screams of pain and death rang through the midnight hour
And As Kenya bleeds, as our motherland burns
The powers that be dance on our heads and emotions
The powers that be call on outside mediators
While the problem lays within the very soul of Kenyans
The fire burns from regimes past and those long forgotten
The pain soars higher than our smoke filled skies
And the children watch on in innocent bewilderment
At the loss of their simple homes
At the helplessness of their crying mothers
and at the mercilessness of their angered fathers
… at the despair of their disillusioned brothers and sisters
they queue in line for entrance into temporary shelters.
Our choice of men how erroneous and regretful
Their hunger for power strangles our very core
Women and children scurry for shelter at any corner
Away from flames that have engulfed a nation of brotherhood
Brothers and sisters poisoned to hate those not of kin
Poisoned in history, past and present.
The newly homeless refugees hold out a hand, for a loaf and cloth
Yet the puppet masters smile into the cameras
Ironically wishing us a prosperous new year
Calling for mass action and peace on earth
Waltzing with the mighty and holy from lands afar
Yet the locals dare not go hunting for basic essentials
For fear of what lays in that looting jungle
Or the indiscriminate bullets that scatter us like rabbits
Some even sing and chant in hope of more glory and fame
Singing of peace and praying for salvation
In stiletto shoes and low-cut halter tops
camera-lights-action, we sing for peace!
And like bees we flock to the nearest shelter in jamuhuri
But safe and secure it must be, unlike mathare
To lend a hand and wait for a shot in the evening news
and maybe a model snap, in the Daily Nation
What is this fire that burns in the heart of our motherland
What is this fear that turns one community against a another
Who planted the seed that blooms an evil weed
That weed that chokes the harvest of our forefathers and mothers?
-Dani