The Mississippi State Schools4Schools organization requests that students, faculty and community members donate old cell phones and ink cartridges. The used products will be recycled through an organization called Phoneraiser, and all proceeds will benefit National Invisible Children, Inc. The money raised will help fund an assigned school in Uganda.
The creation of Schools4Schools was inspired by the “Invisible Children” screening in January in Lee Hall Auditorium. “Invisible Children” is a documentary that captures the civil conflict in Northern Uganda and its effects on the children caught in the midst of the brutal war.
The movie raised awareness of the crisis at Mississippi State University and also educated audience members with ways they can help, said Shea Cole, president and founder of MSU’s Schools4Schools. One of the ways was to create a campus organization to help raise money for the building of Ugandan schools.
“I felt like it was our responsibility,” said Cole, a senior philosophy and religion major. “I felt like God was really moving me to start something here. I felt like we needed to do it.”
Since its formation, the group has plunged headfirst into raising money for the cause.
“I saw that [collecting phones and cartridges] could be lucrative,” Cole said. “We can reach out to kids that need us through this; there really is no excuse to turn it down.”
The group has been assigned a specific school and task by the National Invisible Children, Inc.
“Our school is called Lacor Secondary School in Northern Uganda,” Cole said. “Our task is to raise money for clean water.”
National Invisible Children, Inc. offers advice for feasible fundraising tactics and information through the company’s Web site, Cole said.
“They don’t restrict you really on anything, but they do make helpful [fund-raising] suggestions,” she said.
Cole said that Schools4Schools has contacted most fraternities and sororities on campus to put out collection boxes for phones and cartridges. Boxes have also been placed at some campus ministry offices such as Wesley Foundation, Baptist Student Union and Campus Crusade.
Vice president of Schools4Schools Aaron Lawson said in addition to the current cell phone and ink cartridge drive, early plans for a dance-a-thon are in the making.
“We’ve got a location set, but we’re still getting everything worked out,” he said. “Hopefully in the next couple of days, we’ll have everything finalized, and we can start getting the word out.”
Schools4Schools has not yet set a specific goal for its fundraiser.
“We don’t really have monetary goal right now,” Cole said. “Just anything we can raise to help.”
Weekly Sunday meetings of Schools4Schools are held at 8:15 p.m. in First Presbyterian Church on Main Street. So far, a group of 10 to 15 people have been attending meetings, Cole said.
Besides the Sunday night meetings, a Facebook group has been created designed to inform and recruit students for the cause. The group is named Schools4Schools and has about 250 members.
“We’re hoping that people join the group and get involved and ask questions,” Cole said. “We’re not asking them to go to Uganda. We just need help.”
Lawson said that any donations will help the organization’s cause.
“Our goal is to raise any money we can for them and also raise awareness on the matter,” he said. “If we can raise awareness, more people can get involved and help out.