Ottawa Citizen, October 31, 2002
Diane Stuemer touched by offer of help
by Michael Prentice
Diane Stuemer says she was in tears this week at an Ottawa school-teacher's reaction to her story of the plight of children in Kenya. The teacher wrote offering help after attending a book-tour talk by Mrs. Stuemer, in which she told of hardship endured by Kenyan children.
Mrs. Stuemer has made helping Kenyan children a goal, following her around-the-world sailing adventure with her husband Herbert and their three children, Michael, Jonathan and Christopher. The Orleans family became friends with several families in the African country. Her family's adventures were chronicled in the Citizen at the time of the trip. Her just-published book of the four-year journey, The Voyage of the Northern Magic: a Family Odyssey, is already in its second printing, after the first printing of 7,500 was quickly snapped up.
Mrs. Stuemer is seeking to twin Canadian schools with schools in Kenya. "It will be up to each school to decide what form the twinning takes," she says. "A Canadian school might decide to sponsor students in Kenya, or raise funds for things a school in Kenya needs." The Stuemers plan a return visit to Kenya next year to advance their plan. Mrs. Stuemer was moved to tears by the teacher's offer to get her school involved in the twinning
program.
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Ottawa
Citizen, December 17, 2002
Shark-tooth necklaces a show of support for Kenyan students
Proceeds raise money for project promoted by Stuemer family
By Shauna Rempel
“I think it’s really cool and I like to help people,” said 13-year-old Hadley student Erica Rothschild, sporting a blue-and-white beaded
Hamisi Mwandoro has developed a small business, originally funded by Citizen readers, that has grown to the point where he now has sub-contractors making shark-tooth jewelry. |
shark’s
tooth pendant. Erica wanted to help so much that she spent $100, her life
savings.
Hamisi Mwandoro, a 20-year-old from Kilifi, Kenya, started making and exporting the necklaces with help from Diane Stuemer and her family two years ago. During a round-the-world sailing adventure, the Stuemers spent time in the impoverished village of Kilifi, where many families couldn’t afford to send their children to school. They also saw students sitting on the dirt floor of a schoolroom with a leaky roof.
When
Mrs. Stuemer – in her weekly Citizen column about her family’s trip
– wrote about the efforts to pay tuition for Kilifi children, she was
flooded by donations. The project took on a new dimension this fall when Eva
Blush, who had just started teaching moral education at Hadley, heard about
Kilifi’s plight and saw an opportunity to show her students they could make a
difference.
Along
with fellow teacher Melanie Johnson and some students, she is raising money for
Majaoni Primary School in Kilifi. The school needs major
repairs and lacks basic supplies such a desks and books.
The
necklaces have become a hot commodity, raising more than $600 so far. Students
like the shark’s-tooth and bead jewelry because it “looks like something
off Survivor,” Mrs. Blush says.
The fundraising effort also helps kids discover who they are and tap into their talents Mrs. Blush said. “That’s why this project is important. The students feel as though they are making a difference.”
The
lesson isn’t lost on the students, who have spent time during lunch and after
school planning and strategizing. “In
Canada, we’re so lucky,” says 12-year-old Sara Graham. James
Farr, 13, has a new appreciation for school. “They have a different
attitude,” he says of the Kenyan students. “They want to go to school, but
they can’t.” “Everyone deserves a good school,” Olivia Doggett, 13,
says.
The
students say the necklaces, which sell for $20 and $25, do make a fashion
statement, but also say wearing them shows how much they care about their Kenyan
counterparts.
Sales
have been so brisk that another shipment of jewelry has been ordered to
replenish stock before the annual talent show on Thursday. Mrs. Blush is sure
they’ll sell like hotcakes so close to Christmas. But based on the excitement
and goodwill of her students, she says, “this is feeling like Christmas
already.”