Sunday, April 26, 2009
A LONG, LONG WAY FROM HOME
Rutland woman takes experience to Kenya to break ground for an orphanage
By DAVID BLOW
SPECIAL TO THE HERALD
Jennifer Wright says she has always had a need to help people. She has no idea where it comes from and has often felt frustrated at not knowing how best to put it to use.
But when the 22-year-old Rutland native (pictured at left, center) went to an orphanage in Zimbabwe, Africa on a church mission during her senior year in high school, she found a clear purpose.
Walking back from a church service to an orphanage packed with kids whose parents had died from AIDS, she heard a sound that changed her.
“All of a sudden I heard these pure, innocent, angelic voices coming from the orphanage,” Wright said in a recent phone interview. “With everything they’d been through, they were singing. It was so beautiful. I just started crying.”
But it was a subsequent trip to a dirty, understaffed, state-run orphanage in Kenya a year later that charted her future.
“Kids were going to the bathroom everywhere, there wasn’t enough staff for the 120 orphans, there was no schooling and I saw abuse happening to mentally retarded kids,” she said. “It was deplorable, and I knew it could be better because I saw it better (in the Zimbabwe orphanage)."
Now, days away from graduating from Wagner College in Staten Island, Wright has channeled her experiences in Africa into a life mission to help these orphans in Kenya. She started a not-for-profit agency in 2007 called Heal the Children Foundation Inc., has raised about $10,000, and in February plans to break ground on a new orphanage in Kenya to ensure that African orphans can pursue dreams like children in other parts of the world.
“They have dreams like any other children. They talk about wanting to be doctors and engineers, but their chances of realizing them are remote. Why shouldn’t they have that opportunity?” she said.
THE PASSION
So how does a middle-class, blond-haired, blue-eyed girl from Rutland have this drive to help others a world away? Where does this uncontrollable Mother Theresa-esque sprit come from?
“I don’t even know,” she said with an “aw, shucks” tone. “Everyone asks me that question. I just have always felt this need to help people.”
Her mother, Laurie, said that as soon as “Jenny” could talk, she was flexing her independence. She would be shown how to do basic toddler tasks, but then wanted no further assistance.
“She’d push you away and say ‘I can do it.’ ”
Laurie said her husband nicknamed her “the laser” because when she set her mind to accomplish something, “nothing would stand in her way, like a laser beam.”
At Mill River High School, she focused that beam on orchestrating a “Pennies for Patients” program to help children battling cancer, organizing blood drives and filling holiday baskets. She also restructured the student government as Student Council president to make it more proactive.
Wright once attended a course on tolerance at Castleton State College, and then returned to Mill River and did a presentation on how people should strive to be more accepting of others.
Don Markie, her guidance counselor at Mill River, said she never needed much guidance.
“But she’s given me a bunch,” he said, with reflective awe in his voice. “With people like Jennifer, a lot of it is get outa their way and support them. … She’s an amazing, amazing human being.”
Her mother said Jennifer matured faster than most kids and was always driven to help others. That desire just blossomed with a true purpose after her trips to Africa.
“I call her Oprah, without the money,” she said with a laugh.
A SPECIAL PRESENCE
When speaking to Wright, you get the sense that you’re in the presence of someone very special.
Everyone says so.
Compassion oozes from her big eyes as she speaks to you with a maturity that adults with decades on her will never have.
And unlike some who take on do-good tasks for the accolades they might produce, it’s obvious Wright has no agenda other than to help.
“There’s a genuineness about her,” said Debra Baasch, a Mill River teacher who has taken five trips to the Zimbabwe orphanage through the Grace Congregational Church in Rutland and is credited with exposing Jennifer to the experience in 2005. “She has a maturity about her, realizing that it’s not all about you, but about others and trying to make a difference in the world.”
Wright credits countless mentors for helping her pursue her chosen path, from Markie and former Mill River Principal Bruce Gee to various church leaders like Pastor John Weatherhogg and Baasch. She also touts her classmates and professors at Wagner College.
Laura Martocci, Wagner College’s associate academic dean of service learning, said students are doing great things at Wagner like filtering tainted drinking water in Bangladesh, but she said none are setting off to start an orphanage like Wright. She, like Markie, talked about the inspiration she gets from Wright.
“We’re so proud of her, amazed by her and inspired by her,” she said. “I know colleagues of mine who don’t have the self-esteem and confidence she has.”
Although Wright said she knew her local goodwill efforts through Mill River were important at the time, she also knew there was so much more need in the world, and she wanted to do more.
But how? The Zimbabwe trip with Baasch, and the subsequent Kenya trip, revealed the answer. She had her epiphany: She had to help these children who had suffered so much.
“All that need I had to help just exploded,” she said. “Honestly, I would feel guilty if I wasn’t doing what I’m doing.”
She talked about the horrific hardship these children endured, like one 11-year-old girl in Kenya who lost her parents to AIDS and was sent to live with a grandmother only to be raped by an uncle. When she told the grandmother, she was cast aside because she was “an embarrassment.”
A 12-year-old boy in Zimbabwe lost his mother to AIDS, and when his father died from the disease not long after, he was so scared of what might become of him that he holed himself in the house with his dad’s decomposing corpse for three days before he was found and taken to the orphanage.
“Those are just two of many stories,” she said, her voice quivering slightly at the recollection. “An entire generation there has been lost, and these kids are left behind.”
Barnabus Gikonyo, who lives in Kenya and serves on the Heal the Children board, said the need in Africa is immense. But in a lengthy e-mail, he talked about never really dissecting the impact of AIDS in his country – until Wright came on the scene.
“The AIDS pandemic has really wrecked Africa, and the biggest losers are children. The pandemic has really left many children orphaned, and the cycle continues,” he wrote, adding that his family has suffered several losses to AIDS.
Since meeting Wright, the 33-year-old computer systems engineer said he has become much more aware and involved in helping improve the lives of these lost children.
“Jennifer has come from thousands of miles to solve a problem she did not create, and I feel greatly challenged … to make a contribution, too, on this great human need in my society,” he wrote. “Knowing Jennifer has been a great thing to me.”
THE ORPHANAGE
In a perfect world, Wright said, Heal The Children Foundation will break ground on a 24-acre parcel of fertile land in February and begin the process of building the orphanage that will provide good food, clean living conditions, medical attention and schooling options to the children she has fallen in love with.
Initially, she hopes to serve about 30 children and 10 babies, but that number could increase to 60 or so total.
“I go back and forth on the exact number, because we want the home to have a family atmosphere where the children have the attention that is needed to heal and grow into successful and happy adults,” she said. “However, on the other hand, the need is greater than anyone can imagine. It would be easy to fill the home and keep taking in children, but we have to be realistic about what is best for the children.”
Plans are to initially build dormitories, a kitchen, nursery, dining hall and a medical clinic. Although there are local schools, she said she hopes to have educational opportunities there in the future with computers, art and music programs, and trade opportunities like agriculture and welding, she said.
The orphanage will also be self-sustaining, with livestock and gardens to help feed the children and not have to rely on foreign aid. “There are too many orphanages that I have seen that are dependant on food donations to feed their children. There must be food security to ensure that children have proper nutrition,” she said.
While ever the optimist, Wright concedes there is a lot of work to be done to get to that point. The land alone costs $60,000 — $50,000 more than the organization has.
There have been local church fund-raisers, and the Web site her mother helped her create does accept donations, but much more is needed.
“After graduation, our need is to raise money. I’ll be staying in New York raising funds and applying for grants through the end of the year,” she said. “I’ll go over there next winter and start developing the land.”
She stressed that the land has yet to be purchased and said there are hurdles to overcome to accomplish that, but she is clearly undaunted. She says her faith and hard work will pay off – and maybe lead to other orphanages. Although she laughed at her word choice, Wright said she’d love to essentially “franchise” orphanages throughout Africa and maybe beyond.
“I know this is what I’m meant to do. If I have to get two or three other jobs while still in the U.S. I’ll do it and do this at night or in my free time. I’m not worried about it.
“I could be happy building orphanages the rest on my life.”
To donate to Heal the Children Foundation, go to healthechildrenfoundation.org or send checks to Heal The Children Foundation, Grand Central Station, P.O. Box 3544, New York N.Y. 10163
David Blow is an assistant professor of communication at Castleton State College. He met Jennifer Wright on a school fact-finding trip to Wagner College as part of a Castleton plan to institute more civic engaged learning.
Rutland Herald features student’s Kenya philanthropy
April 26, 2009
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