Country star joins school in concern about Darfur
South Aiken High School teacher Sherry Shipes readily acknowledges with a smile that "Students Taking Action Now: Darfur" (STAND) is the weird club on campus.
There is no president or officers at all. If a student wants to get involved, Shipes will find something for him to do.
STAND got a huge boost Tuesday in an unlikely way - an appearance by Big Kenny of the country band Big & Rich. Kenny Alphin, 46, not only shares the club members' concern about the genocide, abuse of women and terrible living conditions in war-torn Darfur, Sudan, but he's also doing something directly about it.
Big Kenny showed a half-completed documentary about the visit he and his wife, band members and leaders of the organization My Sister's Keeper took to the remote village of Akon, Sudan. On both trips, the group brought medical supplies and educational materials to support a limited medical clinic and the new Kunyuk School for Girls. That's a huge breakthrough in a country that has devalued education for girls even more than for boys.
What Big Kenny found there, however, is that the people of Akon desperately want those opportunities. The documentary showed the preventable poor health of many children and the willingness of all of the kids to walk many miles through river water to attend school.
"You can raise awareness," Big Kenny told the students after one asked what they could do. "Show what you stand for and talk to your friends any chance you have. But educate yourself first. Don't speak with false statistics."
The real numbers are that as many as 200,000 people in Sudan have been killed and 2 million more displaced by their own government. Shipes and three seniors who are informal STAND leaders - Pedro Lopez de Victoria, Lauren Key and Nate Foutch - credit 2009 graduate Lexi Arani for her passion in keeping the organization going last year. They were thrilled that about 250 South Aiken students showed up for Big Kenny's presentation.
"Lexi was so passionate about it," Key said. "Now we want to pass the torch, too. We hope to see some younger people step up."
Big Kenny gave them a lot to think about. Without education, girls in Sudan have few options except to marry, and a man may have as many as 15 wives. The girls are discovering that through education, they can take on responsibility for themselves and have more pride about their lives.
Despite the enormous hardships Big Kenny and his friends found in Akon, "these people are so authentic," Liz Walker of My Sister's Keeper said in the documentary. "They are so hospitable and open. They have nothing and give you everything - their hearts, their dignity and how they have survived, despite all odds."
Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.