Chatsworth Community Forges Bond With Afghan Orphans

by Judy Silberstein

(December 15, 2006) This year families at Chatsworth Avenue School continued a tradition – albeit one started only last year – of celebrating United Nations Day by coming to school dressed in international garb and decorating the school with posters and flags of many colors. In addition, spearheaded by a group of fourth grade students and Chatsworth parent Fainula Rodriguez, the school organized a coin drive to support more than 2,000 boys and girls who reside in two Afghanistan orphanages in Kabul. Now, helping the orphanages may also become a Chatsworth tradition.

During a brief five-day blitz, the community rallied and the school collected $ 1,364, most of the donations coming in the form of pennies, dimes, nickels, and quarters from the children. In many instances, this was money the youngsters had been saving to buy items for themselves, but were donating to the Afghanistan orphans instead. “The sentiments expressed by these children came from the heart and exemplified the character we are all looking to develop in our youth: the ability to not only care for someone beyond themselves, but to then demonstrate it with action,” said Chatsworth Principal Steve Castar. The group of children who helped to organize this coin drive made posters, spoke to all the classes in the school about the effort and counted the coins collected.

Chatsworth fourth graders display a poster and giant water bottle
they used in their effort to collect funds for two Afghan orphanages

Fainula Rodriguez, who works at the United Nations, then took the Chatsworth donation to Afghanistan. With the help of the Afghan Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, she was able to purchase 650 backpacks complete with basic school supplies-crayons, coloring books, pencils, erasers, ruler, sharpener and 2 notebooks. This translates, roughly, into each Chatsworth student contributing one backpack for one Afghan orphan at the cost of approximately $2.50 a piece. Ms. Rodriguez brought back many photographs and a letter from the minister of Labour and Social Affairs thanking the school for its efforts and support and expressing an interest in building a long term tie with Chatsworth.

It is amazing to think that our children’s contribution of coins could purchase so much, and make such a difference to the life of a needy child in Afghanistan,” said Mr. Castar. The idea arose: If we could do so much with this amount of coins, imagine what else we could do.

Ms. Rodriguez and Mr. Castar were invited by Larchmont’s Mayor Liz Feld, a Chatsworth parent, to share the Afghan experience at the December 11 Village Board meeting. Ms. Rodriguez told the residents of Larchmont how proud she was of the children’s effort, and how rewarding this project had been for her. In her four years of involvement as an expert in democratic governance helping the government of Afghanistan, “this project between the children of Chatsworth Elementary and the Kabul orphanages was the most hopeful one in promoting peace and tolerance between nations,” she said.

Chatsworth Principal Steve Castar and Fainula Rodriguez, a Chatsworth parent and United Nations official, explained to the Larchmont Village Board how students raised funds for Afghan orphans.

“The children of Afghanistan, one million of whom are war orphans, need all the help they can get,” she said. “The ten thousand of these who are fortunate enough to be in the 27 nation-wide orphanages still live in dismal poverty. Last week, at a freezing 13 degrees Fahrenheit, these children barely had flannel pajamas and sandals to cover them,” she added. It is difficult, in these circumstances, to survive let alone thrive, something that every child should be given an opportunity to do. “We need to look beyond Band-Aid solutions," she told the Larchmont Board. “If we don’t provide them with an outlook, a future, these children will end-up vulnerable to the Taliban, Al-Qaeda or anyone with a 50 dollar bill.”

Mayor Feld raised the possibility of doing something every month, with each month specifically earmarked for a particular effort: for example a coat drive, shoe drive, or book drive.

“It is our hope that the Chatsworth Avenue School and the village of Larchmont will continue to build a relationship with these children in Afghanistan well into the future,” said Ms. Rodriguez. “From the spirit of solidarity demonstrated by our children, and with a bit of effort from all of us, we can help build a peaceful and safe world in which all children have a chance to put their energies to productive lives and, importantly, to grow up to be responsible citizens of the world.”

Front Page

Print This Page
Email this page