Advocates for education

We Are the World dominated the airwaves in 1985. The song, written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, was a call for people to help feed the more than seven million people affected by famine in Ethiopia.

It was also a call for people to love one another.

That same year, Jan Schmidt and John David Pankratz met each other. For the last 40 years, the couple has been dedicating their lives not only to looking after each other and those closest to them, but to others in faraway places.

Though both were raised in faith-based households, their reasons for being actively involved in numerous community and humanitarian endeavours extend beyond the faith they were raised in, and have more to do with what inspired them as young people.

“My parents modelled that you look after other people — that’s just something you do,” Pankratz said. “I could bring a hitchhiker home to mom for supper during the mid ’70s and she’d put out an extra plate. It wasn’t about evangelizing, it was about how to be good people.”

As a child, Schmidt learned about generosity while watching her parents give a percentage of their income to charity.

“I began to realize the value of that. It’s fun to make a difference; you begin to feel that connection with things happening in community,” she explained. “And you feel part of things. My parents taught me that and I embraced it. There are benefits in so many different ways.”

Pankratz has had a long career with local and international not-for-profit organizations. He’s given his time to a number of groups, serving on boards and committees and helping organize events locally.

For decades, he and Schmidt have been a stable presence at popular weekly dinners with a group of neighbours on their Wolseley street.

Early on, Pankratz appreciated the sense that there’s a bigger world out there, and the many interesting stories that came along with that.

“I enjoy connecting across cultures — people’s world views — they come from a different context,” he said. Pankratz has been to 62 countries and continues to enjoy travel experiences.

The passionate advocate for children’s education has formed a close bond with an orphanage in the Democratic Republic of Congo in East Africa. Over the years, he’s visited more than a dozen times.

He’s developed an understanding of the daily routine and the scope of the influence and commitment of Georgette — the woman at the centre of the orphanage’s operations — to being there for the kids until they have the knowledge and skills to make it on their own. It was her work and its impacts that resulted in his taking on an active volunteer role in the mission.

“We live in a connected world. If some people are suffering, we are all suffering. It’s heartbreaking,” he said of some of what he’s seen during his time in Congo.

Pankratz has seen many university students who lack access to necessities — equipment and clothing, for example.

Now he’s part of the dream which has turned into the reality of a home for 54 kids, with educational opportunities for all of them.

Pankratz visited again last month, one of a small team of local volunteers ensuring the children and their education are looked after. Some of the kids have been supported to study a trade, others who wanted to go to university are being assisted with that.

“These kids — three of them were girls abandoned in a church by their mother who couldn’t take care of them. Now they’re married and supporting children. All three of them have a trade.”

Pankratz and his team of volunteers are currently running their local annual pie fundraiser. A freshly baked pie can be purchased for a donation of $100, with funds going directly to the children’s education. Last year, their fundraiser generated over $10,000.

Schmidt, a private consultant who does mediation work, has focused her time in the peacebuilding community — helping people navigate difficult conversations. When she’s not working or volunteering locally, she’s committed to furthering the work of Ubuntu Clinique in Burundi, East Africa — one of the 10 poorest countries in the world.

“The poverty where I’m involved is very different. People die from things that nobody in our country would die from — it’s a lack of access.”

The word “Ubuntu” — the one the clinic is named after — is an ancient African word, meaning humanity or kindess.

As the chair of the Canadian board that supports the clinic, Schmidt visits regularly and sees firsthand the activity and expansion.

“It’s amazing what he has accomplished in 10 years,” she said of the founder of the clinic — a former child refugee who survived terrible atrocities of war.

“He focuses on maternal health and pediatric care.”

She looks forward to returning next year to organize another local fundraiser.

“It’s in my DNA to care. I think we all need to do something outside of ourselves, to contribute to society and to others, no matter what our circumstances, with money or time. It’s the only way — to look for where we can make an impact and do something positive with whatever it is that we have.”

Schmidt hopes to make the world a better place — wishing for others to be more open and to give wisely.

Visit: congoschildren.ca or and UbuntuClinique.com

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca