Bolton couple to help orphans Tanzania
By ALAN LICZYK Staff Reporter

Montessori teachers Pam Leudke and Jamie Rossiter of Bolton will be going to Tanzania in late July to help at an orphanage.

Having always wanted to do a volunteer vacation, a Bolton couple will finally achieve that goal when they go to Tanzania this summer to help out at an orphanage.

Jamie Rossiter and his wife Pam Leudke are both Montessori teachers who will go to the Mbeya region of Tanzania beginning July 29 to volunteer for three weeks with The Olive Branch for Children, a registered Canadian charity. The Olive Branch for Children's mission is to assist children orphaned by or born with HIV/AIDS through a growing number of initiatives and programs.

Rossiter and Leudke heard about the Olive Branch program when Deborah McCracken, founder of The Olive Branch for Children, spoke at their church, St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Richmond Hill.

The Olive Branch works with the Iwambi Evangelical Lutheran Orphanage Centre which cares for 57 HIV/AIDS orphans. The charity also opened a zion home for six children aged three to eight who are HIV positive or have AIDS.

Rossiter explained McCracken gives the children all their food, clothing, medication and education. He added one could tell how dedicated she was when she spoke.

"She was really dynamic and captured the children's imagination," he said.

He also noted McCracken is working to try and beat the stereotype of AIDS. The children at the orphanage receive six meals a day and seem as healthy as their peers, he said.

McCracken spends 11 months of the year at this site. Her family runs the business charity for her here in Canada.

"She's just a young woman," Rossiter said. "She's made this commitment and is making an incredible difference."

Rossiter teaches grades 5 through 8 at Aurora Montessori School while Leudke teaches children aged three to six at the Montessori School of Kleinburg. Rossiter has been teaching for 13 years and Leudke for 12 years. Both have also taught at summer camps in Bolton. They met when they were both teachers at the Toronto Montessori School in Richmond Hill in 1996 and will have been married seven years this summer. They've resided in Bolton for the last three years.

Leudke was able to get donations of language, math, culture, sensorial and practical life materials which will be shipped by boat at the end of May, taking about 50 to 60 days to get to Tanzania.

"Montessori schools are international which was neat for me to see," Leudke said.

She added the materials are very expensive to buy.

McCracken has to hire a translator for the couple for the three weeks they are there. They will land at the only international airport in Tanzania in the capital city of Dar es Salaam and take a 10-hour bus ride west to Mbeya. They are paying for the $5,000 flight themselves.

A mission like this was something the couple had planned on doing for some time.

"We've always known we wanted to do a volunteer vacation," Leudke said. "We thought this is the one we wanted to do."

McCracken told them it will be very overwhelming when they get there and they need to keep their focus.

"It will be very primitive," Leudke said. "She said when you look in their eyes it's pure love. The basics in life keep them happy. It seems they have a well-balanced, healthy diet."

The couple will stay at a guest house which has a room with a bed and a wash basin.

Rossiter pointed out they camp a lot so they're used to roughing it.

"I think that's prepared us a little bit," he said.

Bottled water will be shipped in and they will have to take cold showers.

Rossiter said their daily routine there will have them observe the children in the morning and work with the staff in the afternoon. They want the children to understand why they have these materials and how to use them. Normally the children don't learn English until high school, but the materials will help the children learn at the youngest age.

Leudke added their role will include educating staff, classroom management, behaviour management, showing positive ways of redirection and helping foster creativity.

The couple don't know if they'll go back to Tanzania after this journey because of the cost to get there.

"We want to continue supporting it," Leudke said.

Rossiter explained $1,000 a year will support one of the children in one of the smaller homes.

Leudke said the community can help by making donations to The Olive Branch for Children in their name. Anyone giving $25 or more will be issued a charitable tax receipt. Cheques should be made payable to The Olive Branch for Children and mailed to The Olive Branch for Children, 14 - 3650 Langstaff Rd., #377, Woodbridge, Ontario, L4L 9A8.

For more information about the charity, go to its Web site: www.theolivebranchforchild ren.org.