Lisle grandmothers help their Kenyan counterparts

Donna Schreiber knew she didn't have $100,000 to give to Upendo Village in Kenya, where grandmothers struggle to raise their AIDS-orphaned grandchildren.

But the Lisle grandmother wanted to help.

"I'm a grandmother, so I thought maybe there's something we can do," she said. "I didn't know what we would do, but I just thought we could do something."

The longtime member of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Lisle put a notice in the parish bulletin and was thrilled when nine other people showed up for a meeting. Grandmothers to Grandmothers was born.

Mulling over fundraising ideas, the group decided on a bake sale. Being grandmothers, after all, they could turn out a few dozen cookies, cakes, pies and brownies. Their first sale was at St. Joan of Arc over Memorial Day weekend last year.

"We made $1,900," Schreiber recalled. "We sold out before the last Mass. It was just very gratifying. People were very generous."

A second bake sale in October brought in another $1,500. The grandmothers group, which has grown to about 20, sent the money to Upendo Village to be used to make loans to grandmothers starting small businesses to support their families.

Upendo Village

The efforts to help the grandmothers become self-sufficient have been encouraging, said Sister Theresa Langfield, the executive director of Upendo Village in Wheaton, which provides fundraising and oversight for the Kenyan ministry.

"We have classes helping them start micro-businesses," Langfield said. "We have had more and more success stories with that."

Langfield said the grandmothers may be provided with loans to raise chickens or goats. Others grow vegetables to sell or make crafts that are marketed in the United States. Some dig stones from quarries to make a living.

"They're doing great. Some of them have bank accounts," Langfield said.

Started in 2002 by Sister Florence Muia to address the AIDS epidemic in her native Kenya, Upendo Village ("Upendo" meaning "love") is a partnership between the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi and the Wheaton Franciscan Community.

Located in Naivasha, Kenya, Upendo Village has a clinic, community center and staff house to provide support for more than 5,100 people per month affected by HIV/AIDS. A $1.5 million capital campaign is under way to build a social services building, kitchen and dining area.

Schreiber said she first learned about Upendo Village through her parish. The parish is within the Diocese of Joliet, which sends a medical mission/construction group to Upendo Village every year. Tom Richardt, deacon of the Social Justice and Peace Ministry at St. Joan of Arc, has traveled to Upendo six times.

Richardt said the people served by Upendo Village live in outlying, mostly rural areas in mud huts without running water or electricity.

"There is not public aid. There are no charitable organizations over there looking out for people," he said.

The moral support that a group like Grandmothers to Grandmothers provides is as important as the material goods they send, Richardt said.

"It's a huge amount of comfort to the grandmothers to know that someone cares," he said. "What they really need is encouragement and hope."

Grandmothers bond

Schreiber said she was pleased to learn that grandmothers of Upendo Village have started a "Cucu Kulea Group" (Grandmothers Bringing Up Group). The secretary of the group, which now includes 50 members, sent Schreiber a card and a letter expressing members' gratitude to the grandmothers in the United States.

"You are wonderful people," the secretary wrote. "Our group is still at its early formative stages, but we are very eager to do our best."

"I was just so tickled," Schreiber said. "I really admire them (for taking on raising their grandchildren). I thought they were very strong people to do that."

Schreiber said her own grandmothers group, including a couple of aunts, will have its next bake sale Memorial Day weekend, and members are looking at other fundraising ideas. They have found a kinship with the grandmothers of Upendo Village, she said.

"They're exactly the same as we are, except we have material goods and they don't," she said.

The mother of six and grandmother of 10, Schreiber also is employed as the secretary at the Lisle Township Highway Department. Long active in her parish, she has served on the parish council and St. Joan of Arc School board. She is excited about a new EarthMatters ministry started at the parish to address environmental issues and is a member of the Social Justice and Peace ministry.

"Donna is a very, very compassionate woman," Richardt said.

In addition to her work with Grandmothers to Grandmothers, Schreiber on her own sponsors a child of Upendo Village named Peter. The $880 a year that sponsors give pays the child's school tuition, provides nutrition for the family and basic medical care, Langfield said. But when Schreiber learned that Peter has a little sister, she wanted to do more. She gave an extra $400, which the family used to buy a cow. The cow, which the family named "Great," could indeed set them on a path to greater prosperity, she said.

"That $400 bought the cow and some food for the cow and the cow was pregnant," she said.

Langfield said she hopes the Grandmothers to Grandmothers program Schreiber started catches on.

"I think it's a replicable opportunity," she said. "What they are doing could be done by any church or parish … (by) anybody who wants that kind of outreach."

For information on Upendo Village, call (630) 909-6604.