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Student wants to spread the word about Africa
Aug 17, 2007 By: Peg McCarthy(Previously published Feb. 15, 2006)
NORTHUMBERLAND - The stirring and emotional words of Stephen Lewis provided a turning point for a former native of Cavan.
Tara Embrey heard a speech by Mr. Lewis while she was taking a fourth year Guelph University course on Africa that included the politics of AIDS and the perpetuation of the disease. After hearing the speech, she decided she wanted to get personally involved by going to Africa.
She also attended the recent lecture in Cobourg by Mr. Lewis, where she stood up during question period to tell him how important his words had been, a sentiment that obviously touched the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
The student's story began during her last year of university, when together with a friend, she spent half a year researching various non-governmental agencies, and stumbled on a grassroots organization that met their desire to work directly with people.
The organization was called St. Rita's, which the two women later learned was named in honour of the co-ordinator's sister, who had died of AIDS. Run by one woman, Bernadette Otieno, the agency offered community-based child care, which was just the kind of service the two Canadians were looking for.
Delighted by their find, the two were even more thrilled to learn the small organization had just been nominated for a World Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child, an international youth-run competition based in Sweden where youths around the world, many of whom have had their own rights violated, are the voters.
"Kids all over the world vote - some from the most remote places where they set up their own polling stations, like one desert where the votes were made in a shoe box. It's just great for kids to see what other kids can do."
Also on the short list of three groups was the work of Nelson Mandella. St. Rita's won.
The prestige meant more exposure for the agency and more information for the two women about to join its ranks. Although it had been in operation for seven years, they were only the second and smallest group to volunteer there.
St. Rita's was started by Bernadette Otieno in Kisumu, Kenya, with her own funds and some property in her husband's family. Ms. Embrey says the founder left a job to start the agency, which provides lunch for children in the area, and also helps raise money for school uniforms and fees for secondary school students (elementary is free). The cost is between $350 and $450 per year per child.
Growing to serve about 125 children, funding is always tenuous. Ms. Otieno bakes and sells her goods in town, and has also begged, to operate St. Rita's. Mothers in the area help in the kitchen, says Ms. Embrey, and the award, which carried a $40,000 U.S. grant, will carry the organization for a while.
Kisumu is virtually a slum, says Ms. Embrey, with many orphaned children and only very informal employment, like fishing in nearby Lake Victoria.
The two Canadians lived on-site, and spent the first month getting to know the locals, creating programs for the kids, which included art and play therapy, and visiting homes with a social worker who provides home-based care for women with HIV. Eventually they had two groups of older youths (ages 12 to 15) who met daily. They talked about women's rights and self-esteem with the girls and taught drawing to the boys.
The groups were slow to start but important, the women felt, because that age is typically heavily into parenting and chores, with the death of so many parents, due to HIV/AIDS.
"The kids were fascinated with you, but not warm at first," says Ms. Embrey. "Every day they would ask for money, because white people always give money."
The two women did contribute to the local economy, and went prepared with $2,000 raised by friends and family. In the end, they bought six months of medicines and food, and contributed to medical and transportation costs. They bought land for one family, and built a home for another ($800).
"We went hoping to do some counselling. We thought we would save the world, and then after a while, we let that go and really found a place for ourselves."
The two women worked at St. Rita's for three months, and have returned hoping to raise another $800 for a home for a special family, headed up by their friend Eric, barely 20, who cares for his four younger siblings, one niece whose parents have died, and his own two children.
The deed to the home will be in the entire family's names, which delights Ms. Embrey.
"It took a while to get your mind into the culture - the first month was a honeymoon, and then we started to see the cracks.
"Then we got a deeper sense, instead of the idealistic understanding we started with."
Home, and looking forward to a career in the non-profit sector, Ms. Embrey says her advice to anyone contemplating a similar journey would be to go with an open mind, be happy to make a few small differences, go to learn and not to save, respect the culture, don't judge, and don't go for gratitude and praise.
The traveller says she would love to spend some time talking to high school students around the province, and help kids who already have the desire to do similar trips.
