Heather Stephens goes to funerals every week.
In the townships around Nelspruit, South Africa, where she has lived for two decades, the AIDS pandemic still claims a huge number of lives and, as a consequence, many children are left without parents. These orphans are among the vulnerable youth and children in need that Stephens has devoted her life to helping.
"They have a right to have a life and a future. It's not their fault their parents passed away," Stephens said during a recent visit to the North Shore.
Born and raised in North Vancouver and West Vancouver, Stephens has lived in Africa for the better part of 33 years. She trained as a teacher in Canada and worked as an educator and teacher-trainer in Africa for many years. In 2009, she founded the community development agency Mamkhulu.org, which is supported financially by North Vancouver-based Christian charity Reachout To Africa. Mamkhulu translates to "auntie" in the Siswati, Zulu and Ndebele languages.
"We're a group of seven women. . . and we run programs for orphans and vulnerable children and youth," Stephens said.
Those programs include youth-run school clubs and psychosocial support camps. The charity also provides care and resources for street kids and teen mothers.
"Mainly the goal is to get them through high school, because they can't do anything without their high school (diploma)," Stephens said.
Already, she has seen her work pay off. Many of the youth who have been supported by Mamkhulu have gone on to not only graduate high school, but also find employment and even pursue post-secondary studies.
"We've got, I would say, a dozen kids already that are either in or have finished university."
Stephens first travelled to Africa in 1982. She and her family did community development work at a hospital in Angola.
"I went in 1982 thinking we were staying two years," she said with a laugh.
In 1985 she started working in Zimbabwe, eventually returning to Canada for a period while her own children finished high school. In 1994, she moved to South Africa where she has lived ever since.
At 68-years-old, Stephens' three children and four grandchildren often ask when she plans to move back to Canada. But it's not a question she's ready to answer just yet.
Currently, she is focused on making Mamkhulu a self-sustaining organization and hopes the youth who have been supported by the agency's programs will begin to take on leadership roles and help out younger kids in the region. "Helping kids help themselves" is the charity's slogan.
There are children all over the world, Canada included, in desperate need of help, Stephens said, but South Africa is where she feels she can make the biggest difference.
"People are important wherever they are," she said. "It's a global community. We need to support people on the other side of the world too."
For more information, or to make a donation, visit mamkhulu.org or reachout2africa.org.
