Vermont students raise awareness, funds to help land-mine survivors

Published: 2004-01-20

RUTLAND, Vt. (CNS) -- Gina Mondella, a senior at Mount St. Joseph Academy in Rutland, said she had heard about land mines but didn't truly understand their effects until she took Paolo Zancanaro's class on ethics and 20th-century genocide. "We live here in the United States far away from that," she said. "Other people have land mines right outside their door, and little kids walk out and get a leg blown off." Students at the Catholic school in the Burlington Diocese have been working to raise funds for Clear Path International, an organization that serves land-mine and bomb accident survivors, their families and their communities in former war zones in Southeast Asia. Its mission is to remove obstacles that stand in the way of the health, safety and development of children and their families. "You can survive life by staying in your own bubble and just try to get through the next day and not get involved with what doesn't directly affect you," Mondella told The Vermont Catholic Tribune, Burlington's diocesan newspaper. "Or you can actually live a little and help others and know you're making a difference in the world."

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