On Saturday, Apwonjo will hold an event to raise money and awareness about their organization called “Please Don’t Stop the Music,” a dance-a-thon starting at 8:30 p.m., at the Student Recreation Center, open to all students who want to get involved. The organization will also have an art gallery set up for people to see during the dance-a-thon of the children’s paintings from Africa.
Apwonjo, a UA club dedicated to raising awareness of social justice issues in Africa, has been working in conjunction with Freedom in Creation – another organization created to aid communities in Africa with fresh water concerns and bringing therapy to children involved as unwilling soldiers, according to Caitlin Trotter, director of public relations for Apwonjo.
“Our ultimate goal is to build a new well in Uganda, which costs $5000, or to rehabilitate a well which costs $2,500,” said Caitlin Trotter, a sophomore and director of public relations for Apwonjo. “We are helping to provide clean water. A village may not have clean water. Women have to get water and that can be dangerous.”
Freedom in Creation works with a small group of 35 children who were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and forced to fight. The FIC is providing art therapy sessions and other forms of aid that can allow these children to heal, according to Linn Groft, a senior and president of Apwonjo.
“For students who sign up as a team, it is $10 per person and as an individual it is $12. We will also have the founder of Freedom in Creation at the event to talk about the problems that are facing the communities in Uganda,” Groft said. “This dance-a-thon is our last big push to raise money. We are at $1,500 now, so we still have a long ways to go.”
The organization Apwonjo was started in fall semester of 2006, with the idea of getting the University of Alabama and the community in Tuscaloosa aware of the injustices happening in Uganda, according to Groft.
“We are educating students and the community about issues in Africa. There isn’t a lot of news coverage or understanding about complex issues in Africa, and we trying to find a more holistic and progressive approach to helping these issues,” Groft said.
This year, Apwonjo has been involved in many events to continue raising money and awareness. The organization has done bake sales throughout the year, created an African film series to show different issues affecting Africa and have members of the organization go to a conference in Memphis, Tenn., to help refugees from Africa, Trotter said.
“The word Apwonjo means ‘I teach’ in Lua which is a language spoken in Kenya,” Trotter said.
For more information about this event visit Apwonjo’s website apwonjo.org.
