April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
VOLUNTEER'S EXPERIENCE
East Africa's poor give back
"If I had food," one 15-year-old told Mrs. Stasik, "I could think. And if I could think, I could do anything."
Mrs. Stasik, a microbiologist and parishioner at Corpus Christi Church in Round Lake, volunteers with The Giving Circle, a Saratoga Springs-based non-profit that helps communities in need locally and globally. In six years, Mrs. Stasik has taken nine trips to East Africa, working on projects in Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Students from Siena College in Loudonville, The College of Saint Rose in Albany and The University at Albany, among others, also participate in The Giving Circle.
Mrs. Stasik finds that the need in East Africa is sometimes so basic that she wouldn't have even imagined it.
"All she needed was food," Mrs. Stasik said of the Zimbabwean teenager, "and there I was pushing pencils and books."
Although Zimbabwe has recently become too dangerous to visit, it's where Mrs. Stasik's interest in serving impoverished areas began. She was inspired by a Bible study class and a newspaper article to join a trip to Zimbabwe.
The first child she saw was a boy she had seen in the paper.
"'Everyday people can make a difference:' I finally understood what people meant by that," she said.
The poverty in Zimbabwe brought her to tears. She learned that women there wake at 3 a.m. to find water, then start a fire to boil water, hoping they'll even have food to cook.
Children, often orphaned or raised by grandmothers, don't always have clothes. Malaria is widespread; the life expectancy in many places is 33.
Grateful hearts
"In the midst of all that," Mrs. Stasik discovered, "they get up and say, 'Thank you, God, for today.' They believe that whatever happens to them, God is waiting for them. There's a peace and a happiness in these villages unlike anything I've ever seen."
That mood has affected Mrs. Stasik's own spiritual life. Today, she listens more carefully to Bible readings, with a keener sense of historical context. It's even changed the way she prays: instead of praying for things, she said she prays for "hearts to heal" and for "people to feel God's loving arms."
She also admires the importance God claims in East Africans' lives. Many villagers walk two hours without shoes in 100-degree temperatures to get to a church, where they spend six hours on Sundays.
Among a host of Giving Circle projects like installing wells and planting gardens, Mrs. Stasik is particularly proud of doing malaria research with the New York State Department of Health. She's been teaching Zimbabweans how to prevent and treat the disease and providing villagers with malaria nets and pills.
She also helped to start microbusinesses, build schools in Uganda and lead women's education groups on health, prenatal care and small business skills.
"When I sit there with those women," she said, "we are just a bunch of women laughing at each other. I am so convinced we are all the same."
In the three countries, the group has also worked on a reusable feminine hygiene pad project. Women and teenage girls in some villages must resort to using plastic, grass or newspaper; Ugandans even dig a hole and sit in the sand during their cycle, causing girls to miss school.
When The Giving Circle developed a washable pad and distributed it to hundreds of women, infection rates decreased and school retention rates increased significantly. Mrs. Stasik also teaches girls about puberty.
Saying goodbye
She said the most difficult part about her trips is leaving.
"They treat us like family. It is so hard to leave there because you feel this peace, you feel this serenity. You just want to put it in a bottle and take it with you," she remarked.
Corpus Christi parishioners have contributed to the volunteer's travel costs, which can run to $1,800 for airfare and $600 to stay in tiny "hotel" rooms to limit exposure to malaria.
Mrs. Stasik sometimes receives criticism from Americans who point out the poverty rate in the U.S.
"I don't understand why they judge me that way," she said. Now, she tells critics, "You're absolutely right. The need here is really great. Tell me what you're doing, and maybe we can help you with that."
But she'll also continue to return to East Africa. Villagers told her she gives them hope. "That's quite an honor and a privilege," she said.[[In-content Ad]]
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