Alumni Alex Bernatz Changes Lives Around The World
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November 7, 2009 • Sean Bentley
Filed under News
Parasite and bacteria infested water mixed with brown and green scum. Old, musty, patched up, and run-down brick buildings. Bathrooms in disrepair with the foul stench of rotting sewage.
These were once the circumstances for girls of Sacred Hearts Secondary School in northern Uganda. Alex Bernatz, a senior last year in Social Justice, witnessed firsthand how the situation was improved thanks to the efforts of our school’s book drive.
“I don’t think anyone deserves to learn in the conditions they do. Everyone deserves to have a clean, safe environment to learn in,” Bernatz said.
Bernatz represented the class in a trip to visit schools in northern Uganda over the summer. The trip was sponsored by the non-profit organization Invisible Children, after Social Justice collected over 49,000 books, 29,000 deemed saleable, and placed second in the Invisible Children and Better World Book’s “Schools for Schools” book drive. The $1.2 million raised from the nationwide drive went towards helping educational programs in northern Uganda. Sacred Heart was the sister school assigned to the Social Justice class, and our campus.
“I was in such awe of what was done, just with the money everyone raised,” Bernatz said, “The girls were so grateful.”
The fundraising for the Sacred Heart School went mostly towards improving sanitation. New latrines for the bathrooms, and water pumps for fresh, clean water were among some of the renovations made possible by the book drive.
“Looking around at the schools and seeing some of the old buildings compared to the new buildings, you could just tell they really needed the help,” Bernatz said.
Invisible Children is an organization that tries to raise awareness and money for children in northern Uganda because of the 25 year old war that has ravaged the north. The Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, often abduct children and use them in their army as child soldiers. In the spring of 2003, three young men, Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole, went to Uganda and made a film about this tragedy titled, “Invisible Children: Rough Cut,” and founded the organization soon after.
In another part of the trip, Bernatz traveled to Washington D.C., where she participated in the “How It Ends” rally as part of lobby days at the White House. The event, which took place in late June, intended to raise awareness and urge Congress to pass the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009.
The bill, yet to be passed, would involve the United States in creating peace and stabilizing Uganda and all areas affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army. The United States would fund relief efforts and support eliminating the threat of the rebellion army.
Bernatz told a senator during the lobby days, “We have the ability to change the world.”
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