Operation Oscar's Orphanages

There is an orphanage in Columbia for girls who are victims of guerilla raids. These victims have been raped and beaten and many are pregnant. Because their families have been torn apart they have been left with barely enough to get by. "They have no personal items. The orphanage is so poor that the girls go to school in shifts and when they return to the orphanage they wash their underwear in a bin and give it to another girl," says Meghan McGee, social studies and human relations teacher. However, students and staff of Jamesville-DeWitt High School are trying to help.

Oscar Vergara contacted J-DHS about his charity, Operation Ocsar's Orphanages. Vergara, who is from the village that the orphanage is in and is now a coach at Bishop Grimes, spends his time and money towards helping these girls by gathering the basic necessities that they need. He collects these supplies in shoeboxes and ships them to Columbia.

On Oct. 20, Principal Paul Gasparini received an e-mail from Vergara explaining the girls' situations and asking the school to contribute to Operation Oscar's Orphanages. Even though they only had a week to gather supplies because Vergara was trying to ship the supplies off to the girls before the holidays, J-DHS was eager to take on the challenge.

Ms. McGee took it into her own hands after Gasparini talked to her about it. She involved her human relations class made up of seniors Joe Hall and Elizabeth Scheftic and sophomores Jessica Holmes, Alyssa Hurley, Carlie Willson and Emily Fitzgerald. These six determined students informed the students of J-DHS by putting up posters throughout the hallways and asking the students to contribute via the announcements.

All together, they collected 81 shoeboxes full of toiletries and supplies such as shampoo, toothbrushes, hair-ties, razors, socks and tampons. These 65 shoeboxes were considered a success because they only had four school days to collect them. These shoeboxes will be given to the girls as gifts for Christmas along with a Columbian monetary note that they get to spend on themselves. However, Ms. McGee says that this note is equivalent to 67 cents in the U.S.

All of the students from the human relations class said that they were happy that they got the opportunity to help. "It felt really good to know that we helped those girls in some way," Scheftic said. "We got these supplies together in just four days and gave them things that they wouldn't have otherwise," she added. Fitzgerald said "One girl's trash is another girl's treasure!"