Severna Park businesswoman Karen Osborne traveled to Masaka, Uganda, on July 21 to open the Okoa Refuge Medical Clinic — a facility built with funds raised by Osborne and friends through a fundraising project called Cailyn’s Promise.
With help from co-chairs Darlene Monaco and Holly Frye-Atcherson, Osborne launched the project 41/2 years ago.
“I got a call from my friend Martin Nelson from Jacksonville, Florida, telling me his 41/2-year-old daughter Cailyn had been diagnosed with incurable brain cancer,” she said. “I was heartbroken and faithfully followed a Cailyn’s Parade Facebook page Martin’s wife Crystal created that documented their little girl’s journey through her illness and revealed her caring and joyful spirit.
“Days after Cailyn passed away in December; I was tasked to create a project for a local leadership program I was involved in. I had no formal plan, but there was never any question that I was going to dedicate my project to her memory. I called Crystal Nelson and told her about the project. I knew I couldn’t take away the family’s pain but, nevertheless, hoped to create something good in Cailyn’s name.”
Invited to be involved if they wished, the Nelsons were too grief-stricken to participate. But, later, Crystal Nelson told Osborne her project was “the light that saw her through the darkest days of her life.”
By late December, Osborne had contacted doctors working with Jacksonville-based Okoa Refuge, a nonprofit that rescues and provides sanctuary for abandoned and orphaned children, and asked how she might help.
Immediately thereafter, plans crystallized for the Cailyn’s Promise fundraising campaign beginning with a fashion show. Held in March 2013 at Michael’s Eighth Avenue, the event raised enough money to purchase a building for Okoa Refuge’s badly needed medical clinic.
In 2014, Osborne and her co-chairs held a second global-themed fashion show raising sufficient funds to purchase medical equipment and supplies. Over the next two years, the Jacksonville doctors traveled regularly to the refuge to supervise the clinic’s construction, budget, staffing and other details.
This spring Okoa Refuge president Dr. Paul Larsen called Osborne telling her the clinic was ready to open and inviting her to Uganda for the occasion.
“I’m 82 years old and never thought I’d see this in my lifetime … and it’s because of you,” he said.
Called The House of Joy to reflect the joy and strength Cailyn brought to those who knew her, the clinic will provide medical care to individuals and families who wouldn’t otherwise have access to treatment. Having recently acquired dental equipment and hired a dentist, the clinic will soon expand to provide maternity, labor and delivery care.
Osborne said being in Uganda to see the Cailyn’s Promise project come to fruition was an unbelievably fulfilling highlight of her life.
Couple spends summer teaching in Africa
Home after spending six weeks at a school in Rwanda as teachers in a pilot program, Gregg and Mindy Leblanc said the experience was amazing.
With other Annapolis-area teachers, Gregg and Mindy were part of Connect Rwanda, a collaboration pairing U.S. and Rwandan educators at a partner school. Dedicated travelers, the Leblancs were drawn to the program because, when first married, they’d enjoyed teaching at a school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“Mile-high Rwanda is a beautiful country,” Mindy said. “Having healed from the Hutu-led genocide of the Tutsi minority in 1994 and, with both groups united, it’s very peaceful. They worked hard on reconciliation and, for 23 years, have observed 100 days of ‘remembrance.’ “
Normally a Jones Elementary School teacher, Mindy taught Rwandan fourth- and sixth-graders mathematics and English and trained their teachers. Classrooms were old-fashioned and the school had only 100 books total. But she found the students well behaved and more receptive than those in the U.S.
Gregg worked with the school’s IT department to expand and make their system more robust.
At first they had only two gigabytes of memory, then six with the eventual goal of unlimited digital information.
“With few books, our goal was to bring a larger digital media library to the school. That entailed making the network more secure,” he said.
“I found the IT teachers somewhat advanced and looking toward the future. However, in a country where one of the daily chores is to fetch water, personal access to the internet is limited. Some students have phones but most go online at school and are still learning.”
Rwanda’s near the equator with sunrise at 6 a.m. and sunset at 6 p.m. so the Leblancs rose at 5:45 a.m. They taught six 40-minute periods each day and loved every moment.
“What we really noticed about Rwanda was that it’s a country about ‘people,’ ” Gregg said. “When we arrived at school, there were a thousand good mornings.”
Email Severna Park news to Sharon Lee Tegler at wingsorb@aol.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook @SharonLeeSays.
