Since Jillian Wolstein of Pepper Pike founded HELP Malawi in 2006, it has blossomed into a world

Since Jillian Wolstein of Pepper Pike founded HELP Malawi in 2006, it has blossomed into a worldwide effort to aid some of the world’s poorest citizens

PEPPER PIKE– When her high school principal announced an opportunity to volunteer in Africa, Monica Johnson, 18, was interested, even though it meant missing senior prom.

“Half of the girls were like Uh-uh, I’ve already got my dress picked out,’” said Johnson, of Berea, who graduated from St. Martin de Porres High School in June.

Instead, Johnson spent three weeks with children for whom prom would seem an inconceivable and alien luxury.

She and three other high school girls traveled to the African country of Malawi this May as volunteers with HELP Malawi, a non-profit organization that assists some of the poorest children in the world.

Jillian Wolstein of Pepper Pike founded HELP Malawi in 2006 after a trip to South Africa and Botswana inspired her to assist the world’s poor.

She chose Malawi in part because its extreme poverty is not due to corruption and warfare, but situations outside the population’s control such as weather and disease.

“Within hours of being there, they had me,” Wolstein said, describing her first encounter with the Malawi people in 2006. “There’s an abundance of love and there’s very little of anything else.”

HELP Malawi, which began just with Wolstein and a few friends, has grown remarkably in the past two years.

It approaches the vast array of problems facing the world’s poor with a startlingly simple precept — “one country, one village, one child.”

Though HELP Malawi is only helping a tiny fraction of one small country, the organization’s leaders believe that starting small is the only way to tackle such big problems.

They began by building a single village school called Nanthomba. Already, Nanthomba has impacted hundreds of lives, with children walking miles from surrounding villages to attend the school.

Nanthomba has been so successful that HELP Malawi recently took over a nearby school called Kafulafula, paying for 12 teachers aides and subsidizing the teachers’ and headmaster’s salaries.

Though some might wonder where to begin when helping a population faced with such poverty, Wolstein maintains confidence that even the smallest efforts can lead to an enormous difference.

“It is overwhelming, but you have to break it down into smaller pieces,” she said. “All of it is beneficial and helpful no matter how small it may be.”

Jessica Lowe, 26, of Chagrin Falls, who is the director of marketing for HELP Malawi is astounded by how tiny gestures could change everything about a child’s life.

When she first met 11-year-old Howa, the girl barely spoke or interacted with other children or aide workers. When Lowe gave her a shirt, she discovered that girl’s shyness came from shame that she wore only an open vest.

Soon after, Howa began to laugh and play with the other children.

HELP Malawi also believes that health and education are strongly linked, and trains teachers and aides to check children for health problems. If a child needs medical attention, the organization will often pay for the long trip to the nearest hospital and provide for the family while the child receives care.

Since many of the children have no shoes, sometimes leading to life-threatening infections from foot wounds, HELP Malawi donated 800 pairs of crocs to the poorest children in the area.

Finally, HELP Malawi hopes to break ground on a planned health clinic and maternity ward by the end of the summer.

“From our school, it’s branching out,” Lowe said. “That’s how you make a difference.”

What began as a small organization funded almost entirely by Wolstein has grown into a group of people who work together from across the world to improve the lives of Malawi children.

In 2007, HELP Malawi gained 501(c)(3) non-profit status, and was recently selected as one of four charities to benefit from next year’s Clothes Off Our Back online auction, which has raised almost $3 million since 2002 by auctioning off celebrities’ clothing.

“We’re just these girls from Cleveland, trying to do what we feel is the right thing to do for people who don’t have the means to do it themselves,” Wolstein said.

Both the organization leaders and volunteers said that returning home from Malawi made them more appreciative of their American lives, but also helped them recognize that they do not need possessions to be happy.

“Although I may never see those people again, I still think of them every day,” said Sam Musser, 18, of Cleveland, another high school graduate who went to Malawi in May.

“My mind isn’t even wrapped around it,” said Monica Johnson of returning to her American life. “It’s like I left a big piece of myself back there.”