Sharon Dempsey (center in light shirt, wearing glasses) was born in South Africa where she lived with her husband
and two daughters, prior to work-related transfers to Switzerland and the US. The Dempseys have lived in the US for six years and now consider Greensboro, NC, home. Sharon recently completed her Masters in Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she received an Outstanding Graduate Student 2010 award. She organized a collaborative committee representing the Joint Masters of Social Work Program of UNCG and NC A&T University, the UNCG Department of Social Work, and the NASW-Student Organization that launched an “I CAN” campaign, encouraging students to fill cans with quarters over the course of one week to support Building Futures, a children’s center in the Ufafa Valley of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. Woza Moya's children's center is the only site providing early childhood education, play therapy and primary school scholarships in a community of 6,000 people. One donation can, when filled with quarters – about $125 -- enables a child at Woza Moya to attend school, have books and appropriate clothing, for one year.
After Lauren James, Charlotte, NC, graduated from UNC Wilmington where she studied French and International Business, she headed to Haiti on a medical mission and ultimately moved there working for an institution that offered financial services to rural-based poor. Upon returning to the US to complete her MBA in International Business at UNC Charlotte, Lauren continued to follow her heart back to Haiti on volunteer projects. She also worked for her dentist father, for Compel Consulting and for Mothering Across Continents.
After the devastating January 2010 earthquake, Lauren returned to northern Haiti on a mission with the United Methodist Church. She hoped she could find a project that would particularly benefit young women and girls, that could prepare them for the future and help Haiti in the long-term.
"High Hopes Haiti Girls Empowerment Center" is Lauren's dream -- to establish the possibility and process to prepare high school girls to attend university, devleop meaningful vocational skills and aspire to non-traditional careers that offer potential income.
Jerri Hatch, Washington, DC, describes herself as an environmentalist with a love for animals, the outdoors and travel. In January 2009, her passion for travel took her to Rwanda, Kenya and Zanzibar. While in Rwanda, she asked to visit a "small village school." Her travel agent sent her to Mwiko School, which serves 700 children with inadequate teaching materials, school supplies, books, pencils or blackboards. The teachers have little, if any, training.
But there is hope. Mwiko School has an "Environmental Club" where food is grown in a garden near the school, and chickens and rabbits are raised. Jerri, who is leading our "Mentoring Mwiko" efforts, hopes the garden can become self-sustaining for the school and that food products can be sold to show the benefits of what a little bit of work can give to the community.
Karen Puckett, Salisbury, NC (bottom center) and Judy Maves, Atlanta, GA (bottom right) traveled to a heavily guarded Sudan in February 2009 on a mission to look for opportunities to build a school in one Lost Boy's home boma.
Karen, upon returning to the US, connected with Mothering Across Continents, which also was working with a Lost Boy who wants to return to the Sudan and build a school. Karen, a public school media center specialist, now is working to develop the "Raising Sudan" project. She was awarded a Humanitarian Award at the 33rd Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration and Humanitarian Awards Day at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Salisbury, NC.
