Ms. Weeks explains that she "fell in love" with Africa when she was 22 years old and a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria. Since then, she has been back to the continent 13 times, serving in a number of volunteer capacities in Tunisia, Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Senegal, Burundi and Rwanda, where she was a consultant on HIV/AIDS. In Ethiopia in 2008, she performed program development projects for the New York City-based African Services Committee, of which she is a board member. Another of her trips was to Cape Verde, where she visited her daughter Dana, who was serving in the Peace Corps there. For five hours each weekday morning, she assisted two full-time South African staff workers caring for 30 children, who ranged from infants to 4 years of age with basic child care, feeding, dressing, etc. She also helped by delivering emotional support to a group or to an individual child by playing, reading, singing and talking, or just providing a soothing shoulder to lean on. She explains that these children have the same emotions and the same need for love and understanding as their counterparts in America and on Staten Island.
Nathalie J. Weeks "fell in love" with Africa when she was 22 years old and a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria
'A love of people' spurs Nathalie Weeks
By Carol Ann Benanti
May 16, 2010, 5:40AM
Caption: Nathalie J. Weeks visits with children in Cape Town, South Africa, who have benefited from her volunteer mission.This year, Ms. Weeks was assigned by CCS to the Nomzamo Place of Safety, a Cape Town residence for abused, neglected and abandoned children, most of whom have HIV/AIDS.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Nathalie J. Weeks, the Staten Island Mental Health Society's senior vice president for Behavioral Health Services and director of the agency's Children's Community Mental Health Center, assists children with special needs and their families, helping them to overcome their disabilities and challenges and live healthier and more satisfying lives.
Since her passion for her humanitarian career extends into her personal life, when vacation time rolls around, she often travels to Africa, where she spends her time off on a journey, combining volunteer work with the experience of learning, teaching and sharing cultures, races and different ethnic experiences.
In January, Ms. Weeks spent three weeks in Cape Town, South Africa, on a volunteer mission for Cross-Cultural Solutions (CCS), her second excursion for this human services organization. In 2005, she served CCS in Tanzania.
CCS is a well-known organization in the field of international volunteering. Each year, the agency recruits about 4,000 volunteers to travel abroad to countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe to work in orphanages, schools, child care centers, health clinics, hospitals, homes for the elderly and centers for the disabled.
Volunteers work in community settings with local people in organizations focused on supporting social services, education, health care and community development.
Ms. Weeks explains that she "fell in love" with Africa when she was 22 years old and a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria. Since then, she has been back to the continent 13 times, serving in a number of volunteer capacities in Tunisia, Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Senegal, Burundi and Rwanda, where she was a consultant on HIV/AIDS.
In Ethiopia in 2008, she performed program development projects for the New York City-based African Services Committee, of which she is a board member. Another of her trips was to Cape Verde, where she visited her daughter Dana, who was serving in the Peace Corps there.
For five hours each weekday morning, she assisted two full-time South African staff workers caring for 30 children, who ranged from infants to 4 years of age with basic child care, feeding, dressing, etc. She also helped by delivering emotional support to a group or to an individual child by playing, reading, singing and talking, or just providing a soothing shoulder to lean on.
She explains that these children have the same emotions and the same need for love and understanding as their counterparts in America and on Staten Island.
They attended lectures, received basic language lessons, and toured the city's historic sites, including Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were jailed.
One trip highlight, Ms. Weeks recalls, was attending a seminar on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's work with victims of torture during the era of Apartheid.
Another was visiting a large, impoverished township, where they were entertained by children and women who are scheduled to receive used instruments from a New York-based foundation. Though they have nothing, they were proud to be able to entertain with one snare drum and their beautiful voices, she adds.
During Ms. Weeks' free time, she traveled to Cape Town's east coast beaches and toured art museums, vineyards and other cultural settings with her sister, Celeste, who was also volunteering for CCS in a residence for battered women and their children. To unwind, she returned to her home base and baked specialty pies for the staff at Nomzamo - baking being one of her favorite hobbies.
Volunteers for CCS pay their own travel expenses, as well as room and board. In Cape Town, the central house where they live in the community accommodates up to 30 people, who share kitchen facilities, public rooms and bathrooms.
Volunteers come from all over the world and span all ages. "What we have in common," Ms. Weeks affirms, "is a love of people and a commitment to service."
