As Zane Wilemon neared college graduation, the pre-med student increasingly felt he
wasn’t doing anything of real value to help people, so he decided to spend at least a
year doing some volunteer or service work.
“I signed up for the Peace Corps,” Wilemon says.“But, a mentor friend of mine asked if I had
looked at mission organizations. I thought that sounded lame, but he convinced me.”
Ultimately, through African Inland Mission(AIM), Wilemon spent a year in Kijabe, Kenya,
teaching high school French, coaching basketball and working at the medical center.When he got back stateside, he wanted to continue the kind of work he had begun to do in Kijabe, but was unsure how. When a friend contacted him to ask about going to Africa to do service work, he planted the seed for what has become Comfort the Children International (CTC), the non-profit he founded with the help of his brother Rance and some like-minded friends.
“I realized a lot of people probably want to go to Africa to help, but don’t have the religious
conviction or doctrine,” Wilemon says.“I thought, one thing I could do was just open this door. About half of the people who went on that first trip quit their jobs.”When the group returned, many of the members were convinced that they had to domore, and began developing plans for a more sustained effort. Comfort the Children International officially organized as a nonprofit in 2004, taking the name “Comfort the Children” from a song that the Wilemon brothers’ step-father wrote about their work.
Upon returning to Kenya, the CTCI team began building a school, but also began going door to-
door to ask people what they needed.“The uneducated Kenyans said water and education, and the educated Kenyans said water and counseling,” says Wilemon. “That was key. The realization that these people have little to no opportunity. They’re as skilled,intelligent and hopeful as we are. We had to do something there that br ings water,education, counsel and basic opportunity,
and that’s where our vision came for holistic community development.”
Working from a core dedication to community based relationships and a holistic approach,
CTC pursues 5 initiatives: environment,education, health and community. They bring
in experts from universities in the United States to help cultivate projects, which include
Mama’s Got a Brand New Bag, a project which provides employment and economic opportunity for mothers of children with mental or physical disabilities. The project grew out of work with these children, as the team realized the mothers were a population in need as well.“They were left at home with no way to make
a living. They wanted to do something with selling, but they didn’t know what they coulddo. We had a team of professors from Kansas State come and show them how to make these awesome bags. The bags say “This is not a plastic bag” in Swahili on one side, and then the other side is blank, so people can
put their logos on them. The bags help promote sustainability, here and in Africa.”
The project is just one of many currently underway, and CTC is constantly looking for people interested in contributing to the organization’s goals.
Carly Kocurek
Photo by Caroline Mowry
A big thanks to our friends at Kerbey Lane Cafe for
supporting local Austin non-profits. When you
purchase Kerbey Lane Cafe gift cards in February
2009 through RareAustin.com, a portion of the
proceeds will benefit this organization.
Rance Wilemon and Robyn Knocke | Comfort The Children International | ctcinternational.org
wasn’t doing anything of real value to help people, so he decided to spend at least a
year doing some volunteer or service work.
“I signed up for the Peace Corps,” Wilemon says.“But, a mentor friend of mine asked if I had
looked at mission organizations. I thought that sounded lame, but he convinced me.”
Ultimately, through African Inland Mission(AIM), Wilemon spent a year in Kijabe, Kenya,
teaching high school French, coaching basketball and working at the medical center.When he got back stateside, he wanted to continue the kind of work he had begun to do in Kijabe, but was unsure how. When a friend contacted him to ask about going to Africa to do service work, he planted the seed for what has become Comfort the Children International (CTC), the non-profit he founded with the help of his brother Rance and some like-minded friends.
“I realized a lot of people probably want to go to Africa to help, but don’t have the religious
conviction or doctrine,” Wilemon says.“I thought, one thing I could do was just open this door. About half of the people who went on that first trip quit their jobs.”When the group returned, many of the members were convinced that they had to domore, and began developing plans for a more sustained effort. Comfort the Children International officially organized as a nonprofit in 2004, taking the name “Comfort the Children” from a song that the Wilemon brothers’ step-father wrote about their work.
Upon returning to Kenya, the CTCI team began building a school, but also began going door to-
door to ask people what they needed.“The uneducated Kenyans said water and education, and the educated Kenyans said water and counseling,” says Wilemon. “That was key. The realization that these people have little to no opportunity. They’re as skilled,intelligent and hopeful as we are. We had to do something there that br ings water,education, counsel and basic opportunity,
and that’s where our vision came for holistic community development.”
Working from a core dedication to community based relationships and a holistic approach,
CTC pursues 5 initiatives: environment,education, health and community. They bring
in experts from universities in the United States to help cultivate projects, which include
Mama’s Got a Brand New Bag, a project which provides employment and economic opportunity for mothers of children with mental or physical disabilities. The project grew out of work with these children, as the team realized the mothers were a population in need as well.“They were left at home with no way to make
a living. They wanted to do something with selling, but they didn’t know what they coulddo. We had a team of professors from Kansas State come and show them how to make these awesome bags. The bags say “This is not a plastic bag” in Swahili on one side, and then the other side is blank, so people can
put their logos on them. The bags help promote sustainability, here and in Africa.”
The project is just one of many currently underway, and CTC is constantly looking for people interested in contributing to the organization’s goals.
Carly Kocurek
Photo by Caroline Mowry
A big thanks to our friends at Kerbey Lane Cafe for
supporting local Austin non-profits. When you
purchase Kerbey Lane Cafe gift cards in February
2009 through RareAustin.com, a portion of the
proceeds will benefit this organization.
Rance Wilemon and Robyn Knocke | Comfort The Children International | ctcinternational.org
1 comment:
Good pic! :o)
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