11/09/2008
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Photo courtesy of Gerry Tardifffrom the Kennebec Journal
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All of today's:
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from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
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All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
Staff Writer
Gerry Tardiff is on a mission, a permanent mission to help the people of Kabwe, Zambia, help themselves.
Along the way, he's funding agricultural programs and teaching sports skills to children. And now he's looking for a little help from his hometown.
Tardiff, 26, who graduated from Cony High School in Augusta in 2001, has lived and worked for about three years in Kabwe, a city of about 250,000 at the northeastern tip of Zambia, near the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"We're doing projects concentrating on income-generating activities, like raising chickens and goats," he said in a recent phone call. "I build support groups of people who are HIV-positive and not HIV-positive, and have a project for them to earn income farming or with livestock."
His speech had acquired a bit of a British accent.
He's also started three sports teams, many of whose members proudly sport the green and white uniforms once worn by the players at Hodgkins Middle School in Augusta.
"Chuck Hinds and Paul Vachon helped by donating Hodgkins jerseys and some balls to our sports academy, which is aimed at keeping kids off the streets through sports," Tardiff said. He plans to name a small community school he built last year "Augusta Bwafano Community School." Bwafano means "people working together" in the local Bemba language, Tardiff said.
Tardiff also hopes to raise money for a school and orphanage for children orphaned by the HIV and AIDS epidemic. He said he plans to teach trades, such as tailoring, carpentry and agriculture.
Last year, an article in Time magazine rated Kabwe, formerly a lead mining center, as one of the most polluted places on earth. Kabwe children show high levels of lead in their blood.
"The mines are still somewhat active," Tardiff said, because of the presence of so many different minerals in the soil.
But the largest threat to humans by far, Tardiff said, is malaria.
"It kills more people than TB, HIV and cholera combined. People with malaria only need $3 worth of medicine to cure it, and they can't afford it," he said. "They live on $1 a day."
Tardiff contracted malaria about three weeks ago, and was lucky enough to afford the cure.
"I sort of understand why it's a bad thing," he said in a cell phone conversation recently. "I'm fine now."
Tardiff has worked with friends in the United States to set up a nonprofit corporation, Self-Help Worldwide, that can accept tax-deductible contributions to allow his work to continue. Contributions can be sent to Self-Help Worldwide, 9599 Cedarhurst Lane, Unit C, Highlands Ranch, CO 80129.
Terry Burns, a board member of Self-Help Worldwide, said some donations have arrived. "We're just getting started," he said from his Colorado home.
"We want to assist people helping themselves," Tardiff said. We just want to get the word out about what we're doing here."
Tardiff said it's been difficult to get his message heard.
"Between the economy and the election, a lot of people are not thinking about Africa, but for me it's a very real thing," Tardiff said.
He's devoted all of his money -- to the point that he's sold his computer, his clothes, his watch and other possessions -- to keep himself and his programs afloat. Tardiff's group recently bought fertilizer to aid a women's group engaged in farming. The group also aids the Bwafwano Community School.
Tardiff's mother, Cecile Tardiff, who now lives in Virginia, recently returned to Augusta to help raise funds for her son. She worries about her son's physical and mental health.
"Mom, I have so many gray hairs you wouldn't believe it," he told her recently.
Tardiff said he's grateful to Norman Elvin, owner of G&E Roofing; Charlie Snowman of Augusta Tool and Rental and Pine State Trading for helping already.
Other bright spots have been visits from friends from Augusta, including Eliza and Rachel Nimon, who have worked with him, and the success of his Kabwe United Sports Academy.
In late August, two of the 17-year-olds in the program were called up to play for the Under-20 national team.
Their success is an extraordinary feat for Tardiff.
"I played football," he said. "I never knew much about soccer until I came to Zambia."
The soccer teams also form the core of some volunteer labor, including tree planting, community cleanup and helping widows with home maintenance.
Betty Adams -- 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com
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