Student lands in Namibia for latest charitable exploit (hacked entry by The Bank)

Feb 14, 2008
‘My classroom is the world’


By MATT DALEN

Two years ago, Katrina Lipinski went to Nicaragua to help build houses for the needy for the Bridges to Community club. The experience gave her a taste for service work, and she has gone back every year since. But this year, her last at John Jay High School, Katrina decided to take her service work one step further — she is spending more than six weeks in Namibia, helping out at a children’s center in the town of Katutura.

“It’s crazy when I really sit and think about it,” Katrina told The Ledger. “I’m halfway across the world, away from my family, 17 years old and truly being an adult.”

Katrina, who celebrated her 17th birthday Feb. 1, while she was still in Africa, is participating in a program called Walkabout, sponsored through the Putnam-Northern Westchester Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). The program, an enrichment program for high school seniors, includes an internship, which Katrina decided to spend in Africa. During her stay, she continues to hand in classwork for her classes at John Jay, corresponding with her teachers through e-mail.

“I talk to my close friends online almost every night,” Katrina said. “It’s really easy to stay in touch.” In addition to e-mail, she has access to instant messaging, and maintains a blog to keep a journal of her experiences in Africa.

Katrina decided to participate in Walkabout after hearing about it from a friend, Erica Frerking of Ossining, who traveled to Africa to participate in the program last year.

Starting in October, she began pushing the idea to her parents and teachers.
“My parents have always been super supportive of my volunteer work and interests, but I think my teachers were skeptical at first,” she said. “But I really worked hard to complete the 38-page proposal for my teachers, got in contact with Erica’s resource person, and everything took off from there.”

Working with MaryBeth Gallagher, Erica’s contact in Namibia, Katrina was able to get a position at the children’s center, which is run by Catholic AIDS Action. On Thursday, Jan. 17, Katrina arrived in Windhoek, the country’s capital, and moved into a house with several other volunteers at the center.

“Windhoek is a very nice city. Imagine White Plains with mountains in the background, perfect blue skies and big, fluffy cumulus clouds,” Katrina said. “Going from Windhoek, where there are two classy malls and large grocery stores and beautiful homes, into Katutura, where houses are small, single rooms and kids roam the streets all day, was certainly a bit of a shock at first.”

Every day, Katrina and other volunteers take a taxi between Windhoek and Katutura. There, she plays educational games with the children, many of the games crafted out of common materials and “rubbish.” Sometimes, Katrina takes charge of the computer room, where the students may play educational games on one of the center’s eight computers. She helps tutor some students who need help with subjects like English or math.

On weekends, Katrina is usually found helping out with athletic programs — the children play soccer on Saturdays and go to the Katutura pool some Sundays.
The soccer fields, said Katrina, “are dust fields, sparkling with broken bottles and trash. Most kids play with ‘tocks,’ or cleats, that MaryBeth has given them.”

Culture shock

Compared to her previous volunteer experience, helping build houses in Nicaragua, Katrina was surprised by the culture in the area where she works.

“I was really surprised at the people,” she said. “In Nicaragua, I was used to working with hardworking people ... The situation here is more of a sense of entitlement. The kids at the center will frequently ask us for a dollar, and even security guards who have paying jobs will hassle MaryBeth for money and food. This happens on a daily basis. The kids are given everything without having to do anything” by the charities active in the area, including the children’s center.

One of the biggest issues in the country is AIDS, which afflicts about 20% of the population, according to the CIA, including children. In her time at the center, Katrina has been dealing with children with HIV and AIDS, as well as children who have been the victim of child abuse and many other issues. One child at the center gave birth when she was only 14, and had only passed second grade before dropping out; the father was a 21-year-old janitor at the center.

Although the reaction of the Namibian children has made Katrina question the usefulness of charity programs, it has only furthered her desire to study community development and international aid in college — she has been accepted to the State University of New York at both Albany and New Paltz, but has not yet decided where to go. She will return to New York on March 4, and is already planning the next trip to Nicaragua with the Bridges to Community club, of which she is the president this year. Although she is still in high school, she feels like she’s already out in the real world.

“My classroom is the world,” said Katrina. “When the opportunity presented itself to leave Westchester and venture out alone into the ‘real world,’ I jumped at that chance.

“Life is your one and only chance to do what you love, to be happy, to make changes. I wanted to go to Africa, so I found a way.”

Source: http://www.acorn-online.com/news/publish/lewisboro.shtml and http://www.acorn-online.com/news/publish/lewisboro/28939.shtml