Dec. 20, 2008 — About 15 years ago, Debby Rooney journeyed from her familiar stateside home to Africa to see firsthand the animals she had found so compelling in photographs. The journey has not yet ended for Rooney, who maintains a unique wildlife protection program in Kenya called BEADS: beads for education, advancement, development and success
The program is providing a dramatic beginning for a group of St. Thomas students and teachers who will soon venture to Africa to participate in a Walk-a-thon to "Break the Chains of Illiteracy" from Jan. 5 to Jan 21.
Rooney's niece, Montessori upper school teacher Bridget Heersink, inspired by her aunt's vision, is taking three students, accompanied by two parents, to Kenya for three weeks in January to participate in the walk-a-thon.
"I've been invited to bring a group of students on this year's annual fundraiser, the walk-a-thon. We will walk alongside the famous Maasai warriors, with 41 eighth-grade Kenyan girls, along with mothers," Heersink says. "Imagine that! The students are so excited. It's an amazing opportunity."
The students will learn how the African girls, so distant in miles and culture, grow up, and they will share their experiences. Heersink says, "That first trip to Kenya ended up changing my aunt's life."
Rooney recognized the plight of the wild animals when she visited, knowing the inevitable population growth would affect their habitat.
"She tried and tried to find a way to contribute to their welfare," Heersink says. And Rooney came up with an imaginative and circuitous solution to the problem.
"She realized the growing population of the people that make the plains their home would need to be slowed," Heersink says. "So she decided to work toward raising the age of marriage and child-bearing in girls so that, rather than being circumcised and married off at 13, they could wait until their 20s. How? By education, giving the girls a chance to remain in school longer."
It was a vision that took years of work. "Rooney made it her life's mission to help the women she met in Kenya raise enough money to keep their daughters in school," Heersink says. "Starting the Dupoto Women's Group in 1993, she filled a suitcase with their intricate bead work and sold it to friends in the states, sending the profits back to Kenya for school fees." The group comprises 25 Maasai women who support more than 125 children.
There is a catch to this amazing cultural adventure, and it's the usual one: money.
"We're talking at least $2,000 per student, that's airfare, and likely another $2,000 once we get there," Heersink says. "We've raised a great deal of money for events in the past, but I don't know if there's any miracles coming our way this time."
She asks that donations, which are tax-deductible, be mailed to: Montessori School International Academy, at 6936 Vessup Lane, St. Thomas, V.I. 00802, with "Kenya" written in the memo line of the check.
BEADS has now expanded its education efforts to promote gender equality; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; improve maternal health; and to give communities like the Maasai Mara a fighting chance in the global marketplace.
BEADS also cultivates Human Rights Awareness and sponsored its first girls’ initiation ceremony without the traditional cutting in August of 2005. The Virgin Islands students will witness the 2009 ceremony. For $30 a month, sponsors can keep a girl in school for a year. The BEADS webiste has beautiful photography and detailed information on all aspects of the project.
The trip isn't a first for Heersink taking her students out of the territory — though considerably closer, she has twice taken groups to the United Nations in New York. In 2007, two of the Kenyan-bound students participated: Ariel Stolz and Samantha Rosebury. The third student on the Kenyan trip is Kendall Hebert, along with mother Diane Rosebury, and father, Don Hebert.
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