Educating students in South Africa

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By Susan Shinn

For the Salisbury PostEllen Messinger visited South Africa in May. She travels frequently, so that's not unusual. What is unusual is that she delivered thousands of children's books to schools there.

She is quick to deflect any praise, saying that her visit was just the tip of a very large iceberg.

Ellen went to South Africa with her dear friend Beth Patterson Masters. Beth, who lives in New Jersey, is the daughter of Frank and Norma Patterson of China Grove.

Beth's son, Jake, 20, is spending eight weeks in South Africa on an Ingram grant. He is an Ingram Scholar at Vanderbilt University, a full tuition scholarship.

"The scholarship is based on community service, as well as academics, with service being the main component," Beth says. "He won the scholarship for his work at Dikatole."

Jake and his family lived in London for three years, and his father Kent traveled to South Africa often on business.

During these visits, Jake went to South African orphanages. His first visit was in 2005. Although he was just 15 at the time, he wanted to do something to help the children. Why not donate his collection of Beanie Babies he'd outgrown?

Jake's story grew, and he eventually donated more than 3,500 Beanie Babies to delighted South African children.

But he wanted to do more.

He's given CD players, soccer balls and art supplies. He renovated a pool at the Bethesda AIDS orphanage, run by the Salvation Army, in time for Christmas 2006. Jake asked for donations for the project in lieu of gifts that year.

But he wanted to do more.

He eventually found his way to Dikatole, a squatter's camp, built on the site of an old mine.

"Dikatole" means "lost child."

"It's awful," Ellen says. "It's horrible."

She has worked in the slums of Jamaica.

"This was not the first time I had seen this level of poverty."

Jake knew that education was the only way out, so he started raising money for children to go to school.

"It is a nominal fee," Ellen says. "It is to us, but it is unsurmountable to them."

Jake has learned that, "in Africa, anyone who wishes to can make a difference."

Even a young adult.

Jake's efforts have grown into the Dikatole Scholarship Fund. In 2006, eight children, kindergartners, were identified as high achievers and given scholarships. That number has now grown to 13.

A gift of $3,000 provides education for each child through 12th grade, which includes uniforms and school supplies.

Ellen decided to sponsor one of the children. She also told Jake she'd pay to ship children's books to schools there.

A book drive yielded some 15,000 books, which will go to Laekerskool Germiston Primary School and Ekurhuleni School. More are going to an after-school program in Durban. Although the books had not yet arrived when Ellen got to South Africa in May, she got to see the libraries that would receive them.

"We got more books than we ever thought we'd get," Ellen says.

"That's a lot to ship. But that's OK."

"Ellen and Tim Messinger have played a vital role in the success of this book drive," Jake writes in an e-mail. "Without their generous assistance, we couldn't have collected so many books, but more importantly, we would have had no means of transferring the books across the ocean to South Africa.

"I am in Johannesburg now and the project is going very well. I have been working with around 90 kids for the past three weeks, and I plan to continue to work in South Africa until July 3. Many of the kids ask me when 'Aunty Ellen' is coming back with my mom to visit them.

"I tell them I'm hoping she comes soon but I'm not sure, as it is quite a long trek to get to Johannesburg.

One thing is for sure though, Ellen and Tim have had an enormous impact on these children's lives in a way these kids will not soon forget."

It was Beth's idea to go to South Africa to distribute the books.

"Plus, I wanted to meet the little girl I sponsor," Ellen says. "I hope with all my heart I get the opportunity to put her through college," she says of Wayleen, a second-grader.

"Dikatole is not an easy place to visit," Beth writes in an e-mail.

"Ellen was greeted by the sights, sounds and smells that desperate poverty brings: drunken men urinating in the streets at 10 a.m.; dirty, crying children and stray dogs both roaming the streets looking for food; women with beaten faces and spirits. At first glance it seems that drug abuse, poverty and HIV/AIDS are the only things alive and well here.

"Ellen, of course, was not fazed by any of this; she just wanted to get to the school, roll up here sleeves, and get on with it.

"The children bonded with Ellen almost immediately, and she to them.

We took 75 kids bowling one day. Ellen also toured the private school where Jake's 'scholars' attend, and equally important she visited the horrible government school in the squatter camp where the children not on scholarship are forced to attend."

"I was just amazed by the resilience of these kids, to live in the conditions they live in," Ellen says. "It's emotionally draining, but rewarding at the same time."

To decompress, Ellen and Beth spent three days on safari at a private game reserve. They saw hyenas, giraffes, wildebeest, crocodiles, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses and elephants.

But she still carries the children of Dikatole in her heart.

"I'm sure I'll go back," Ellen says.

Jake, too, continues his work.

"I think he'll be involved long-term," Ellen says. "I can't imagine him letting this go."

For more information about the Dikatole Scholarship Program, visit www.orphansagainstaids. com. Then click on OAA South Africa and Dikatole.

Freelance writer Susan Shinn lives in Salisbury.