April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
SIENA ALUM
Warrensburg guest to speak on Namibia
MaryBeth Gallagher, a graduate of Siena College in Loudonville and an Ossining native whose family attends St. Cecilia's half the year, has been working with children in Namibia for a decade.
St. Cecilia's sponsors one of Ms. Gallagher's students, a fifth-grader named Cecilia, and has collected money for school supplies and donated hundreds of bathing suits so the children can attend a community pool. Ms. Gallagher was amazed during her last visit to St. Cecilia's when she saw all the bathing suits hanging in the church lobby.
"It just floored me," she said, noting that Sister Linda Hogan, CSJ, parish life director, traveled to Namibia a few years ago to see Ms. Gallagher's work.
At St. Cecilia's this weekend, Ms. Gallagher will share stories from her work at the Bernhard Nordkamp Centre (BNC), which began in the late '80s as a place for children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. It also served as a soup kitchen, a testing and counseling center and a place for newly-diagnosed, ostracized individuals with HIV/AIDS to generate income.
Ms. Gallagher was called to start an after-school program at the center in 2004, more than a decade after the country gained independence from colonial rule. For five years, she provided a place for children to play games and sports - she was involved in starting what became a national girls' soccer league - sing in a choir and get help with homework.
Eventually, she realized the educational system in the country was so bad that the center needed to focus on academics. Public schools in Namibia are overcrowded and don't have books or electricity. The school day ends shortly after noon, and teachers don't always show up. Violence is an acceptable form of discipline. Under-performing children get dismissed.
Even that is contingent on children getting to school in the first place: Secondary school costs up to $500 a year, and even though primary school tuition was recently eliminated, children are turned away if they can't afford a "voluntary fee." They also have to pay for uniforms, shoes, supplies and exams.
Ms. Gallagher canvassed principals at the 14 public schools surrounding her center, located in a settlement of 120,000 people called Katutura, which translates to "the place where no one wants to be."
They all said students need extra help with English - the official language after the country gained independence, though there are more than a dozen other languages spoken - and math. For five hours in the afternoon, 185 BNC students receive instruction using materials donated from developed countries. Another 200 students are on a waiting list.
"I feel like they get as much or more education in my program" as in school, Ms. Gallagher said, adding that her students do better in school and stick with it. "It's not only the academics. [We talk] about morals and values and ethics and responsibility and self-esteem and self-discipline."
With children new to English, Ms. Gallagher pantomimes and uses puppets and recycled materials to teach. She published a book about teaching tools, "It Costs Almost Nothing," and distributed 5,000 copies across the country.
Namibia has one of the widest wealth gaps, but because it is one of Africa's least densely populated countries, many aid organizations neglect it, Ms. Gallagher said. Many of the poor live in tin shacks in back of brick houses they rent out for income. They eat a dish similar to grits for every meal. Many homes have no running water or electricity.
Ms. Gallagher said the "number one" way to get involved in helping Namibians is to witness the situation there firsthand. Visitors "see it and they carry it on," she said. "[That's how] Jesus' disciples spread Christianity throughout the world."
Children's books aren't available in Namibia, so she asks for donations from Americans. "There are more children's books in my center than in the rest of the country put together," she said.
Faith informs Ms. Gallagher's work, but in the Franciscan lead-by-example way: "The more I can model God's love and goodness...there's no greater way to express your faith."[[In-content Ad]]
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