Volunteer Spotlight: Esther’s Aid

When thinking about volunteerism, how often do you think about what you can do to make the world a better place for children who live thousands of miles away in a country that you have never visited?

That very thought entered the mind of Clare Effiong in 1999. She had been living in New Rochelle for almost 10 years and felt time and time again an internal void in her heart. She was compelled to leave her job and everything familiar to travel to Rwanda in Africa in hopes of finding what she was looking for.

What she witnessed was not only gut-wrenching, but almost defied description: children as young as 5, orphaned due to genocide and AIDS and left to fend for themselves, foraging through garbage in land fills to look for food and whatever else they could find to stay alive.

Within the year, Effiong would create a non-profit organization called Esther’s Aid, whose mission was to respond to the needs of orphaned children and to improve the quality of their lives and futures through skill development, training and empowering programs.

“I spend a good deal of the year in the villages of Rwanda, teaching life skills to children who are a part of our program,” said Effiong. Some of those life skills are things like sewing, baking and construction.

Many of the kids in the organization started out as young as 5 years old and are now young adults, ready to use the skills and education they have received to make a life for themselves that otherwise may have been non-existent due to the level of poverty and lack of adult guidance in their lives.

 “I think people can make a difference on a global level when it comes to volunteering,” Effiong said. “Esther’s Aid has definitely seen many volunteers over the years who have traveled like I do from the U.S. into these villages and have worked hands on with these wonderful children.”

Esther’s Aid’s New Rochelle office staff is 100 percent volunteer; only the staff that works out of the Rwanda office are paid. Even Effiong herself has given up what was a lucrative career as an ambassador at the U.N. for her current life as a devoted servant to the needs and future of Rwanda’s impoverished youth.

Encouraged by the fact that Esther’s Aid is building a stronger community for the young people, Effiong has seen amazing progress: where they once were children sifting through garbage, some have become young adults embarking on culinary careers.

Effiong reaches out to local businesses such as restaurants and hotels, many of which end up hiring the students that Esther’s Aid trains. The businesses do so in part because of how well-trained the students are but also because of the ambitious nature many of the young adults have in wanting to create a life for themselves.

“Last year's graduates have not only found jobs, using their skills, but also in some cases have set up their own businesses, applying their skills to a sustainable and vibrant professional future,” Effiong proudly stated.

Most of the kids that receive services from Esther’s Aid have been orphaned or are, as Effiong says, “the poorest of the poor.”

When Effiong is not in Rwanda, she is back at the Esther’s Aid office in downtown New Rochelle where she plans fundraising events, speaks with students around Westchester about her experiences and hopes to garner as many donations as possible so that she can provide as many resources as possible for her kids back in Rwanda.

“It is important that the students here understand that kids are kids, whether it is here or in Africa, and that seeing their struggles and understanding their lives is an important thing,” Effiong said.

“In the future, these students will become policy makers,” she said, “and hopefully their perspective will have been shaped because of their knowledge of world events and the needs of people outside of the U.S.”

For more information about Esther’s Aid and how you can make a difference on a global level, visit Esthersaid.org.