Members of Briarcliff High School’s Coalition for Human Dignity organized a schoolwide soap drive in February as part of their initiative to advance dignity abroad. The student group participated in the Global Soap Project, for which they collected bars of soap that will ultimately be sent to refugee camps in East Africa. Both new and gently used bars were collected (the used bars to be processed and purified into clean bars) and will be delivered to camps in areas like Uganda and Sudan, where they will help those in need to practice good hygiene and prevent the dysentery that is prevalent in those regions.
Under the direction of adviser Jeanne Claire Cotnoir, the group continues to get involved in causes that promote human dignity for all. “If there is someone who needs to be stood up for, we will stand up for them,” said Ms. Cotnoir, who cited Invisible Children and similar efforts to help children and others at risk of genocide and the atrocities taking place in Darfur. The group also participates in an annual global youth conference on human dignity in Washington, D.C.
