To Africa, with Love from Toronto

June 7, 2011

“Mom, you are not going to get anything from anyone! Your story is not newsworthy.” That was my daughter’s reaction when I told her I was going to start my fundraising campaign in order to help a young woman I had befriended while working in Africa.

What makes news “newsworthy”? First, it should be of interest for the general public, it should be recent, and it should not far from home. It should be “significant” too — a plane crash killing hundreds of people is more significant than a crash killing a dozen. In other words, the more bloodshed around the corner, the better. That’s what makes news sell. Like everybody who is already involved with this paper, I don’t understand why the good news can’t be just as newsworthy! Why not a plain story about the essential goodness of human nature?

And that’s how my fundraising campaign started, from this naïve question, after one day my travels brought me to the University of Ouagadougou, a capital city of Burkina Faso — a poor country, even by West African standards. While there, I made friends with several local women who attended my course. I observed the everyday life in Burkina Faso and was stricken by the adversity I had never seen before. However, my new friends seemed oblivious to it and worked hard towards their university degrees. I was impressed by the high quality of their education and deeply moved by their warm dignity.

Clarissa, augmenting the raised funds by teaching

Back home in Toronto, one of those young women emailed me asking to help her find a scholarship to pay for her studies; I knew that I had to act. It took me nearly three weeks of systematic efforts targeting organized bureaucracy, to no avail. Then I finally overcame my timidity and decided to send an appeal to all my friends and friends of friends. Initiating this campaign I felt uncertain, full of fear of rejection because I had never done anything like this before. However, the response I received to my fundraising drive was overwhelming. In the first three days since my initial appeal, I managed to collect half of the required sum. Several weeks later, almost the full amount was collected and I was able to give the funds to my struggling friend upon my consecutive visit to Africa, allowing her to continue her studies!

Olga Levitski on her trip to Africa

Why was my story newsworthy after all, at least to my friends? I think for my religious friends it was a simple act of faith. They did not ask questions, but acted when they were given an opportunity to act. For my secular friends, it was part of the Jewish edict tikkun olam: by doing one good deed, one can influence the rest of the world and make it better. For my female friends, it was a symbolic act of self-identification with a persevering, struggling woman. We all believed that if someone had the ability and aspiration to acquire knowledge, they should be granted this right.

I suppose all involved with my little fundraising campaign have come to their own simple truth. In a sense, by doing good deeds, we “throw our bread upon the waters,” because we know deep inside that somewhere our good intentions will not be forgotten, and that someone, someday, will think about us when we most need it. There were many of us sending our love to Africa. And it’s good news, Toronto!