I don’t know how people do it. Make a difference in the world, I mean. I’ve been trying, but hurdles keep rising up in front of me, and I’m losing the strength to jump over them. At this point I feel like crying, and I have. I feel like giving up, but I haven’t. Yet.
I feel a sense of urgency, because there are 80 children on a tiny little island in Papua New Guinea, 24 hours away from civilization, who live without electricity or contact with the outside world, and they need help.
They don’t even know I exist, mind you. On the other hand, I’ve known about them since 2019, and I’ve been trying to make contact with them all these years to no avail. Finally, finally I found the right person who knew someone who knew someone who read about the one person who has left that island to be educated beyond the 8th grade, and his name is Gilmister Ben. That someone was able to track down Gilmister and put me in touch with him. After reading the articles about this young man from various sources, I knew he was the one who would help me help those children on Yanaba Island.
After 5 years of searching for a contact and finally getting it, it suddenly felt like time was running out. It was time to raise funds to get school supplies for these children. They already have a one room schoolhouse, but supplies are hard to come by. The average income on that island is about 400 dollars a year per household.
I told Gilmister that raising funds through crowdfunding would be the easy part of this whole endeavor. It was such a good cause, and it would cost nearly nothing to pull off by American standards. I was sure that people would come through. I’d have the funds in no time.
Ah, hubris.
No one has made a donation to my GoFundMe campaign in well over a week at the time of this writing. I’ve only managed to raise $285 in total, which is about 11% of my goal. I’d even settle for half of my goal at this point. Anything to be able to do something for these kids. I can’t even get people to share the link to my fundraiser! Not even that.
I’ll concede that my timing is probably a little off. It’s the holidays. People are already overextended and extremely busy. I get that. But… those children…
Is it time to throw in the towel? Not just yet. Just today my campaign has been approved by the crowdfunding site called Faithify. This is an international group, so I’m hoping more people will see it there and want to contribute.
And then there’s the office supply store in Papua New Guinea. I contacted the first one, and they think I’m a scammer and won’t do business with me. I realize it’s strange, one woman on the other side of the world, asking to make a purchase larger than anything they’ve ever seen, but I even offered to send the funds per Western Union, and still, still they don’t want to work with me. So now I’m trying to work with another store, but haven’t heard back from them yet. But Gilmister leaves tomorrow for the island, and having missed this deadline, I’ll probably have to wait several months before an opportunity opens up again.
I’m just trying to do a good thing. Why so many hurdles? I hate to think I won’t be able to keep my promises. That really gets to me, because if I promise something, I’ll do it unless I have one foot in the grave. But this is kind of out of my hands at this point, so I’m a bit discouraged.
When I get like this, I try to remember that so many people have it worse than I do. But in this case, that’s the whole point. That’s why I’m trying to do this. To help people who have it worse than I do. It shouldn’t be this hard.
But today I was served a heaping helping of humble pie. I read this amazing article about Luis Soriano, a man in Columbia who has come from much more challenging places than I ever have, and he’s made a huge difference in this world. His story is a few paragraphs down.
But even as I eat that humble pie, a little voice inside me says, “How come he could do it and I can’t? I live in the richest country in the freakin’ world, and I can’t even come up with $2,500. Why? Why?”
What I should be saying to myself is “Patience, grasshopper.” If it’s meant to be, it will be. I can’t force my campaign to touch people’s hearts. But… Those children…
What follows is Luis Soriano’s incredible story.
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Luis Soriano is a man who has never given up in his life. He was born prematurely and wasn’t even expected to live. But live he did, in the Colombian countryside, until the violence of the paramilitary forced his mother to send him hours away. Because of this he was able to finish high school and go back to his hometown to become a teacher.
To his great despair, he found that his students weren’t making any progress in school, though, because they had no access to books, and therefore could not practice reading at home. So Luis created Biblioburro in 1997, a full 12 years before the first Little Free Library came into this world. He and his two burros became known far and wide, because they traveled the countryside loaning books to children. He did this while pursuing a college degree, I might add.
Biblioburro seems like a simple plan to execute, but this was not easy at all. Not only does he spend hours and days walking and sometimes riding a burro over very rough terrain in the blistering sun, but he also has had to face the inherent dangers of Colombia itself.
For many years, kidnapping was a constant threat, and the paramilitaries targeted teachers, whom they believed were teaching people to resist them. Bandits also roamed the hills. He once got tied to a tree by thieves who wound up only stealing one of his books. And yet Luis persisted, day in, day out, bringing books to the children.
He started off with just 70 books. Then, fortunately, a popular radio personality learned about him and did a story and that story was picked up internationally. Soon books and donations were coming from all over the world.
And that is lucky for him, because several years ago he had an accident with his burros that crushed his leg so badly that it was going to need to be amputated, and funds were raised to bring him to America for the surgeries. Now he walks on a prosthetic leg. And still, still he brings books to the children of Colombia with his burros! The man is unstoppable.
Now there is a network of biblioburros in Colombia, and many schools and libraries in small towns have been created due to their efforts. Luis has made a huge difference from humble beginnings. How do I even have the right to despair about my little campaign? This man never gave up. I shouldn’t either.
Perhaps I need to rein myself in. I want to run like a stallion, but it seems that plodding along like a burro is much more effective.
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