An earthquake in Haiti jolts folks into action. Those who work year after year in other poor countries, quietly making changes, may be buried in the dust and jagged concrete.
Susanne Garrison and her Wana Duma Children’s Project should not be overlooked.
I wrote about the Camano Island woman 10 years ago as she aimed to save cheetahs in Africa. She toured schools there, teaching children about conservation.
While working with the Cheetah Conservation Fund, she was asked to sponsor 30 children orphaned by AIDS who needed money for uniforms and school.
Her wallet opened.
Three years ago, realizing the kids needed emotional support as well as school supplies, she founded a children’s program in a little town two hours from Nairobi.
Her rental apartment is a haven for kids and teens.
Eventually, she hopes to build a children’s home at the site. Wana Duma supports 57 kids, mostly orphans. Eight are HIV positive.
“I no longer have time to help with the cheetah project as Wana Duma has taken on a life of its own,” Garrison said. “We went nonprofit this summer. We have a board of five members and the list of sponsors, donors and volunteers grows daily.”
She spends half the year in Kenya.
Five brothers and sisters, two of whom are HIV positive, make their way to her home when they need anything. Some spend the night or stay for a few days if they are sick. They receive emotional support and guidance, Garrison said.
Many of her charges are raised by elderly grandmothers and great-grandmothers (called cu-cu), Garrison said. Her group helps feed the families, spends time at their homes and teaches them a vocation.
Some of the women fashion gorgeous woven baskets that Garrison sells from her Camano home.
There is great happiness when she visits the shack of a cu-cu.
“They live in homes we wouldn’t put tools in,” Garrison said. “Beyond poor.”
She described one cu-cu in a blog: “This cu-cu is quite the character. We brought her cocoa and powdered milk. Her shamba (farm home) is in a horrible state as they have not yet gotten the rain. Nothing green, just desert dry and depressing.”
But the cu-cu was happy there would be food in the house. She had her “neighbors” so she said she wasn’t lonely.
Her husband and daughter are buried next to the hovel.
A 6-year-old runs five miles to get to school each morning, eager to get lunch that is paid for by Wana Duma.
One family lives at the Korogocho slums, the largest garbage dump in Nairobi.
“Africa is so hard to fathom sometimes,” Garrison said. “You just walk away with tears in your eyes and hope for a better day.”
Her Camano Island board of directors includes her sister, Karen Pelletier and Ginny Cooper, Debi Holland and Karin Vincent.
They hope to break the cycle of poverty. African students who get through school may become motorcycle mechanics, hairdressers and seamstresses.
“They can support themselves,” Garrison said. “You have to teach them to dream.”
Those with no education take a different path. Garrison found one young girl supporting her grandmother by breaking rocks in a quarry.
Of course she would like to bring them all home, Garrison said.
“You fall in love with each and every one of them,” she said. “But I tell the children they won’t be as happy in America. It’s not their culture.”
She’ll head back to Kenya in February.
“They are becoming my kids,” she said. “It’s very difficult to leave each time.”
She will reunite with those who need $150 a year to stay in school, like Joseph, Bismack, John and Daniel, as yet unsponsored. Faith, 11, is HIV positive and needs $150 for health care.
Two kids in automotive school need $500 a year. Boarding school students are charged $1,000 a year.
Raphael, 3, who is HIV positive, needs medicine.
And how about her earlier project?
The cheetahs are holding their own, Garrison said. Big cats are still in her heart.
She named her project Wana Duma because in Swahili, it means “cheetah children.”
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
Learn more
Susanne Garrison of Camano Island founded Wana Duma Children’s Project to support AIDS orphans in Africa. For more information, e-mail susanne@wanaduma.org.
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