HOT SPRINGS — Alyse Kieber-Emmons, a senior at the Arkansas School for Math, Science and the Arts in Hot Springs, is hoping to gather at least 10,000 donated books by the end of January as part of “the biggest book sale in history to change history.”
“Aly,” as she is known to her family and friends, is trying to make a difference in the lives of children in Uganda, located in east central Africa. The books will be sold through Better World Books, a fair trade business (www.betterworldbooks.com). The profits from the book sale will benefit literacy efforts of Invisible Children Inc.
“Through the actions of my parents and my church community, I have been encouraged to help people,” she said. “I accompanied my mother to Honduras with the medical missionaries from Christ the King. I have been aware of the poverty in the Third World, but now I am committed to making a difference.”
If she reaches the goal, Invisible Children will send a semitrailer to pick up the books and deliver them to Better World Books in South Bend, Ind. If she does not reach this goal, she will be responsible for the transportation of the books.
Kieber-Emmons, 18, is the daughter of Marie and Thomas Kieber-Emmons, members of Christ the King Church in Little Rock. Kieber-Emmons attended Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock for her freshman and sophomore years of high school. In 2007, she was accepted at the Arkansas School for Math, Science and the Arts, a state-supported boarding school.
At Mount St. Mary, she was introduced to Invisible Children of Uganda (www.invisible children.com). For the past 22 years, there has been civil war in Uganda between the government and the rebels, the Lord’s Resistance Army. Because the government has been unable to protect them, outlying villages have been raided and the children kidnapped.
In 2003, three young filmmakers from California visited northern Uganda to make the “Invisible Children of Uganda” visible to the world. Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole remain instrumental in the success of Invisible Children and are currently working on the feature film, tentatively scheduled to release in theaters in 2009.
In 2006, a cease-fire was put in place and many of the people in the Displaced Persons Camps have begun to return to their villages in northern Uganda.
This year Kieber-Emmons introduced ASMSA to Schools for Schools, a fundraising program created by Invisible Children. Its goal is to encourage high school and college students in first-world countries to help their peers in this third-world, war-torn country by raising money to refurbish and reconstruct the damaged and destroyed secondary education system.
ASMSA has partnered with other schools to help the students in the town of Gulu, in northern Uganda. Kieber-Emmons arranged for an on-campus visit by staff of Invisi ble Children and a presentation of a documentary, “Go,” produced by the non-profit. In preparation for this, she arranged for the screening of the film, “Invisible Children: Rough Cut,” for several days during the week of Sept. 14.
Kieber-Emmons also held a bake sale and raised $150, which she will use to buy used books. Following the afternoon film presentations, merchandise made by people in the Ugandan camps was sold and an additional $500 was raised.
For her Fundamentals in Research Methods class, Kieber-Emmons is doing a paper on possible solutions in Uganda. She has received a scholarship to attend Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., where she will major in peace and conflict resolution.
The day of the interview, her mother, Marie Kieber-Emmons, had driven in from Little Rock with 1,000 donated books.
“I’m proud of all these kids involved in this project with Aly,” she said. “Sometimes we think that our youth is self-centered, but they have demonstrated real love for their fellow man.”
Anyone interested in donating books or would like more information may contact Aly Kieber-Emmons by e-mail at alysepriscilla@gmail.com. Donations may be dropped off at the school in Hot Springs, or arrangements can be made to drop the books at a convenient location in Little Rock.
