Now 24 years old, she and husband, Chris Audette, live in a grass-thatched hut in Zambia as part of the Peace Corps. "I may attend or lead meetings on topics such as HIV/AIDS, water and sanitation, family planning, nutrition or informal education. My biggest project now is improving a volunteer-run pre-school for orphans and vulnerable children," she writes via e-mail, in one of the rare times she's near a computer with Internet access. "I am mobilizing U.S. donors to help construct a classroom building, because the children currently learn in a cramped, abandoned shop." The Elinoffs also watch, up close and from afar, the evolution of the school that will help change the fate of local women. "We've raised $30,000, about three-quarters of the money needed," Cissy says. The school received a roof, then electricity, now desks and chairs. The Elinoffs' annual journey to the small town of Hohoe is an arduous one. The flight from New York City to Ghana's capital, Accra, is followed by a five-hour drive over rutted roads. For each trip, they lug four 50-pound duffle bags of reading glasses and durable goods. Victor works with a local herbalist, teaches acupuncture and tends to villagers' medical needs while Cissy, 61, holds seminars for local women, who speak English.
Nicole Barren-Audette is now serving with the Peace Corps in Zambia, accompanied by husband and fellow volunteer Chris Audette
Valerie Zehl Neighbors: First-hand experiences in Africa inspire Broome residents to help
October 6, 2010, 8:00 pm
Caption: Vestal High grad Nicole Barren-Audette is now serving with the Peace Corps in Zambia, accompanied by husband and fellow volunteer Chris Audette. One of her primary goals is promoting a preschool for children there. (Photo Provided)
Victor and Cissy Elinoff, of Binghamton, know the value of education.
He's an M.D., a founding partner of Endwell Family Physicians. She's a certified financial planner and owns CSE Capital Management LLC in the same plaza as EFP on Hooper Road.
They trekked to Ghana in 2006 and met a tall woman named Mary Afari. She gave them an earful about the dead-end lives of local women. Their husbands have the right to demand intimacy, making baby factories out of them and later possibly selling the unwanted children into slavery or indentured servitude. Unmarried women, with no men to support them, often end up as prostitutes.
She showed the Elinoffs four walls on a stark patch of land.
"Someday, this will be my school," she told them. Education would give women some control over their lives, enabling them, as she had, to strikeout on their own.
Now, thanks to the Elinoffs' efforts, the Golda Meir Academy for Girls will soon open its doors.
Nicole Barren sees the impact of under-education, too.
After graduating from Vestal High School in 2004, she earned a degree in anthropology from Hartwick College in Oneonta. A 2007 school trip to South Africa convinced Nicole, the daughter of Vestal residents John and Deborah Connors and Ronald and Virginia Barren, to look deeper into working elsewhere on that continent. Now 24 years old, she and husband, Chris Audette, live in a grass-thatched hut in Zambia as part of the Peace Corps.
"I may attend or lead meetings on topics such as HIV/AIDS, water and sanitation, family planning, nutrition or informal education. My biggest project now is improving a volunteer-run pre-school for orphans and vulnerable children," she writes via e-mail, in one of the rare times she's near a computer with Internet access. "I am mobilizing U.S. donors to help construct a classroom building, because the children currently learn in a cramped, abandoned shop."
The Elinoffs also watch, up close and from afar, the evolution of the school that will help change the fate of local women.
"We've raised $30,000, about three-quarters of the money needed," Cissy says. The school received a roof, then electricity, now desks and chairs.
The Elinoffs' annual journey to the small town of Hohoe is an arduous one. The flight from New York City to Ghana's capital, Accra, is followed by a five-hour drive over rutted roads. For each trip, they lug four 50-pound duffle bags of reading glasses and durable goods. Victor works with a local herbalist, teaches acupuncture and tends to villagers' medical needs while Cissy, 61, holds seminars for local women, who speak English.
"They want to know how to take care of themselves," she says. "They ask basic health questions, such as why do I get so hot, and I explain about hot flashes. Or 'what do I eat so I don't get fat?'"
They have no other sources for such information, she explains. They didn't understand the concept of saving or financial planning, topics she also addresses.
In living among the Zambian villagers, Nicole Barren-Audette has learned what people there need. "In my village children defecate by the open communal water source and women put dirty water containers into the spring; my efforts to sensitize them on how this effects their health has been fruitless," she writes. "They don't understand the concept of germs and children die as a result of witchcraft or because a child's death is almost accepted as inevitable or normal, a fact of life, not from diarrhea caused by dirty water."
Clean water for a village in northern Nigeria is the objective of a group of six Binghamton High seniors.
"Within Yelwa Kadanga, two of the three most prevalent medicated illnesses are water-borne diseases and can be prevented by inexpensive and simple methods," explains the BHS Chapter web page of www.leadershipinitiatives.org.
Two summers ago, Alexander King heard the head of nonprofit Leadership Initiatives speak in Washington, D.C., and was swayed to lend his support for its mission of "empowering communities worldwide." Now, he's program director and classmates Alex Cline, Trudy Redzich, Clarrie Scholtz, Ramona LaTronica and Josh L. Nysenbaum are working with him in the Leadership Initiatives Binghamton chapter.
"Our local goal is to raise the funds ($5,000) to start a water purification and waste management system in the Yelwa Kadanga community," Alexander King explains. "Our long-term goal is to help create a Nigeria, and eventually a world, where lack of clean water is no longer an issue."
They've hosted car washes, a booth at Spiedie Fest and will raise more money through an Ultimate Frisbee tournament on Sunday.
The Elinoffs have had an exhibit of Victor's photography and speak to groups around the area to rally support, and Nicole Barren's blog pleas for friends and family to help the Zambian children.
They're all passionate, all committed and are all making a big difference in many lives.
Neighbors columnist Valerie Zehl can be contacted at vzehl@gannett.com.
