It is no secret that Wittenberg’s call to serve opens new doors of understanding and inspires students in myriad ways.Yet one corner of the world seems to have captured the passion and creativity of many on Wittenberg’s campus. From students to professors to coaches, many in the campus community are rallying around helping the orphans of a small mountainous kingdom in Africa called Lesotho, which has the third highest prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the world. And though these efforts stem from experiences at Wittenberg, they are extending beyond students’ four years here, and even out into other African countries.
by Gabrielle Antoniadis
Photos courtesy of Andrew Steele ’10
If someone had told me two years ago that I would be passionately involved with helping orphans in a tiny kingdom called Lesotho, I would have said they were crazy,” declares Andrew Steele ’10. “I couldn’t have even pronounced it!”
But that is exactly what Steele is doing. In fact, he is more than just “involved,” he is the executive director and founder of BLOOM Africa, an organization dedicated to providing basic, life-saving resources to a generation of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Lesotho. Steele founded BLOOM (which stands for Bringing Lesotho’s Orphans Opportunities and Materials) Africa in the year after he returned from Associate Professor of History Scott Rosenberg’s month- long service-learning trip to Lesotho. Like all of the 200 students who have been onone of Rosenberg’s trips over the last eight years, Steele was deeply moved by the children he met and the conditions in which they lived. “I didn’t feel right not doing anything when I came back,” he recalls. “I felt like there was a big void after this intense experience, and I wanted to find a way to continue to have an impact.”
He brainstormed, he talked to people, and he turned to the community that he knew shared his passion – Wittenberg. Today, BLOOM Africa is “staffed” entirely by Wittenberg alumni, faculty and staff – all of whom work for nothing. Understanding the pitfalls that come with biting off more than you can chew, Steele is starting small and working on simple goals such as raising awareness about Lesotho and raising funds for organizations already doing great work. Eventually, though, he has dreams of building a BLOOM Africa orphanage.
For now, he is thrilled to be making a difference in Lesotho since launching in April 2010. One project with A Drink for Tomorrow brought rainwater collection tanks last summer to the Little Angels Day Care Orphanage. These tanks will provide clean drinking water to more than 45 orphans as well as water for a drip irrigation system. Another project will bring laptops, a solar panel and batteries to primary schools in Ketane. The project will provide new learning opportunities for students, but it will also create a new source of energy and a source of income – any surplus energy generated by the solar panel that is not used by the school can be sold to the community.
When he founded BLOOM Africa, Steele says he had no idea what he was taking on – all he knew was that he wanted to do something. He credits his four fellow alumni and the Wittenberg staff who work at BLOOM Africa – including Women’s Head Basketball Coach Sarah Jurewicz who was also a trip chaperone – for the organization’s early successes.
“The trip was a life-changing experience for us all, and I am so proud of our work so far,” he says.
Taking Root at Wittenberg
Talk to almost anyone on campus, and there is an excellent chance they know all about Lesotho. Maybe they haven’t been there, but they may have heard the stories from friends, heard a presentation from Rosenberg, or participated in a campus collection effort or the popular “Survivor Wittenberg” fundraising event. Leslie Chasteen ’10 remembers that she wanted to go to Lesotho from the moment she heard about it sometime during her freshman year.
Now a staff member of BLOOM Africa, Chasteen echoes Steele’s feeling of wanting to stay involved after coming back. So she joined Rotaract, Wittenberg’s student-led service and mentoring program, and helped to make Lesotho the organization’s international focus. After only three years, Rotaract’s membership has tripled – an accomplishment Chasteen and others partially attribute to the power of the Lesotho cause. Last year, Rotaract’s “Shoes and Shades” project collected more than 100 pairs of shoes and 150 pairs of sunglasses to distribute to Lesotho and Haiti. This year, Rotaract will continue its efforts under the leadership of Lisa Adams ’11.
“It is fascinating to see that so many Wittenberg students are willing to make that kind of commitment and that they take it so seriously,” she remarks.
But Chasteen still wanted to do even more. So she jumped at the chance to join the BLOOM Africa staff, saying it gave her a chance to get re-invested in a hands-on way again. And as a graduate living in Springfield, she is finding more ways to deepen her connection to Lesotho by becoming involved with the Springfield Rotary Club which – thanks to Rotary members and other Wittenberg connections – is sponsoring its own project in Lesotho.
“Watching support for Lesotho snowball and gain momentum on campus and beyond has been really inspiring,” Chasteen says. “It really shows how single actions can add up to make significant changes in the world.”
And that interest and commitment show no signs of waning. The Witt-in-Africa program, a student-led initiative of the Wittenberg Center of Applied Management (WittCAM), was created several years ago to raise funds for supplies for the Lesotho trip. As part of that effort, the volleyball team chose Lesotho as one of the beneficiaries of its charity tournament “Border Battle” last fall. In total last year, Witt-in-Africa raised $8,500 through T-shirt sales, donation competitions at sporting events, “Survivor Wittenberg” and other efforts.
For Rosenberg, who created the first Lesotho trip in 2003, this kind of campus and community support is “incredible and so fulfilling.” He remembers that he struggled to fill the 21 spots on that first trip; today, the application process is extremely competitive. (In 2009, he decided to take two back-to-back trips to accommodate all the interested students.)
I would never have imagined when I started this program that this is what would happen,” he says. “I am amazed at not only the growth in numbers of students interested in going to Lesotho, but also at how the experience has impacted so many people’s lives and what they choose to do with their lives.”
Sowing New Connections
Clearly, Rosenberg is the catalyst for much of the burgeoning support for Lesotho on campus and in the community. Ask anyone who has been on the trip or supported the cause in any way, and you will hear about how his passion moved them to become a part of the effort. With nearly 110,000 orphans and 48 percent of the population living in poverty, Lesotho is certainly in desperate need of assistance, but it is Rosenberg who has brought that message across the world and mad it important to so many here.
“Scott Rosenberg was the biggest driving force behind the Springfield Rotary Club’s decision to fund projects in Lesotho,” says Steve Neely ’75, president-elect of the club.
After Rosenberg spoke to the Springfield Rotary several years ago, members generously contributed to the 2009 Lesotho trips. Later, when the club decided to sponsor its own international project, Neely was on the committee charged with finding a project. They researched at least a dozen projects all over the world before finally settling on Lesotho. Their four-year initiative, “Building Hope for the Orphans of Lesotho,” will include building a new orphanage in Motsekuoa, renovating existing dormitories and building freestanding bathroom and shower facilities, among other activities.
“We saw everything Wittenberg and Scott were doing and knew we would have the opportunity to hit the ground running,” Neely remembers. “It has been a wonderful collaboration.” As a Wittenberg alumnus, Neely says the partnership is doubly satisfying. And it appears that he, as well as his wife, Mary Alice Schryver Neely ’75, will be advocates for Lesotho for life. They are both preparing to return to Lesotho on at least one of Springfield Rotary’s planned service trips in March and June 2011. Springfield Rotary is hoping to spread the word even beyond the Springfield community. It has approached several area Rotary Clubs, and have already received support from Huron Rotary (a connection that also resulted from a Wittenberg student who went to Lesotho two years ago). This fall, it received a substantial boost for the project with an $86,000 matching grant from Rotary International. With this grant and other donations, Springfield Rotary has already raised $185,000 to benefit Lesotho orphans.
“My hope is that we can continue what we are doing and build on the synergy between Rotary Club, Rotaract, Wittenberg’s service-learning trips and BLOOM Africa even after we have completed this particular project,” he says. Rosenberg is also keen on keeping those connections. He is planning for his summer 2011 group to spend one week building chicken coops, painting or doing other tasks at the orphanage Springfield Rotary is building.
In the meantime, students and alumni such as Betty Cheney ’10 – who, after two trips to Lesotho with Wittenberg, turned her life desire to work in medicine into a specific mission focused on being a pediatrician in Lesotho – are carrying their newly discovered passion out into the world.
And Andrew Steele, who isn’t satisfied with just running BLOOM Africa, is reaching out to another African country: he is spending this entire year volunteering in South Africa through the Young Adults in Global Mission program of the ELCA.
“My Lesotho trip was an experience that ‘woke’ me up,” he says. “I always knew I wanted to do service, and I learned at Wittenberg that it is easy if your heart is in it.”