by BarbaraSher » Tue Mar 21, 2000 9:26 am
Over the years I've come across stories in newspapers and magazines about individuals who have bypassed the big foundations (or been rejected by them) and just gone out to do some good on their own. In a newspaper in London, I read about a nun who went to Africa by herself without any backing (because she couldn't get consent from the church), walked to a village, sat under a tree until the kids brought her food, and proceeded to teach them how to read and write.
After 20 years she had created 20 schools. She appeared in the London newspaper because she'd finally been noticed and was being given an award by the Queen. Her wonderful responses (instead of what my most ungracious one would have been: "Thanks for nothing. A lot of kids could have used your help for the last 20 years.") was something like "What's the big deal?"
Very cool. I'm filled with admiration.
In a United Airlines magazine a few years ago I read an article about a retired engineer named Eric Schonblum who never even tried to bring in outside funds, but went to the Ozarks and started a 2 week summer computer camp in the local school. He sat on the porches of the people who lived back in the hills, telling them what he wanted to do, and saying he'd come by every morning and toot his horn, and wait a minute or two, and if their kids came out he'd take them to school and bring them back at the end of the day. And if they didn't, well, that would be okay too.
At the school he had/has some old Macintoshes and his only goal was to make the kids comfortable with computers. A very gentle and wise human being, this man.
I have a great article from The New York Times (International Section, author Barbara Crossette, no date, unfortunately) about a French writer and historian named Dominique (and his wife also Dominique) Lapierre: "[who] went back to India to try to share his success with the people who had inspired his work...LaPierre, 68, calculates that he has spent $5 million on his small and largely unpublicized projects, drawn from royalties on his books...
"Along the way, he has learned some hard lessons, he said. He has come to distrust official foreign aid -- from governments, the United Nations and big international agencies..." and their refusal to give money to humans (apparently they just want to have buildings and vehicles, which wind up empty and rusty). So they too did it on their own.
If you know of any more stories like these, I'd love to hear them. This is a long post, so I'll continue on another.