“Changemakers” is our series exploring how young people, connected and globally aware, are working to change the world. If you know a young person (think “Millennial” or “Gen Y”) committed to change, global health and the fight against poverty, please send the person’s name, short bio and contact info to Jake Ellison at jellison@kplu.org.
By Lisa Stiffler, special correspondent
Susie Marks, 27, is executive director for the Seattle office of Hamomi Children’s Centre and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Michael Bang
Susie Marks
All that Susie Marks had meant to do was to drop off a donation from a well-meaning friend at an elementary school in Nairobi.
Somehow she wound up executive director of Hamomi Children’s Centre.
When she was a junior in college, Marks spent a year volunteering at a different children’s center in Kenya. She loved her host family and she sponged up the language and culture.
But the volunteering left her disillusioned. Instead of making a real difference, she wound up acting as a part-time sub for a paid teacher when he needed a classroom break. All around her she saw volunteers like herself either under-utilized or burdened with massive tasks for which they weren’t qualified.
When she walked into Hamomi that fateful day it 2007, they mistook her for a volunteer and put her in front of a class. “I felt like, ‘Here I go again. I’m going to teach and be ineffective,’ ” Marks said.
Then she realized that Hamomi was something special. The school, which serves children living in the area’s slums, had been running since 1999 on volunteer power alone. Its three Kenyan teachers were largely reliant on handouts themselves to survive. Their dedication amazed Marks.
“I was totally blown away by what they are doing. They are the best organization I’ve ever seen,” she said. She was thrilled to see a project that was initiated and sustained by people in the community. The model made sense – and it was working. Continue reading
