Kids here have it pretty good, says New Westminster mom, volunteer and flight attendant Karen Bohn.
The children who live in Toto Love Children's Home in Embu, Kenya, by contrast, make Western problems seem small.
Nineteen children, all of them HIV-positive, and left orphaned or abandoned, live in a 1,000-square foot home with just three full-time volunteers to look after them.
Bohn and a contingent of six others from the charity Wings Bring Hope, including New West's Laurene Lovik, are collecting badly needed donations, and heading to Embu for 10 days of volunteering in early March.
"We're going to be helping out with the kids, playing with them. We're going to cook for them. We're going to bring in some food, go to the school and interact with the kids and bring them supplies," Bohn said.
Bohn said she's wanted to join Wings Bring Hope since her friend and fellow Air Canada flight attendant Denise Dore founded it in 2009, but an almost pathological need to help others has had her thinking about volunteering in Africa for a long time.
"Everybody here has so much. I like helping. I like helping people who can't do it themselves, and I've always wanted to do this. This has been a lifelong dream to do this," Bohn said. "It just seems to be that somebody needs us. These kids need us. I'd like to bring them all back, but I don't think that the Canadian government would let me."
While Bohn has collected two duffel bags of donations, including school supplies from Staples in Burnaby, tools, soccer balls from the Royal City Youth Soccer Club, bras and underwear for the women, and kids' clothing, even flight attendants can't bend the rules on how many bags they're allowed to bring on board a plane. Other donations, will be the type that fit in an envelope, Bohn hopes.
"Funds would be great," she said. "I'll be taking donations up until the beginning of March."
Even Bohn's kids, eight-year-old Jaxon and 11-year-old Ell, are contributing to the effort, Bohn said.
"Both gave me their piggy banks full of money to take to the children in Africa. Jaxon told me they needed it more that he did. Although they have a lot, they have big hearts and are ready to help when they can," she said.
Anyone wanting to donate to the mission can contact Bohn directly at 604-369-8959 or visit the charity's website at www. wingsbringhope.com. Wings Bring Hope is a registered charity and provides tax receipts for donations.
