For The Almanac

writer@thealmanac.net

Though the Nyadire Connection may sound like the title of a swashbuckling fiction, it's inception is the result of a sad reality, the survival of Nyadire United Methodist Mission, a northeastern Zimbabwe farm, orphanage, school and hospital complex.

"When we returned from a two-week visit in 2006, we all decided that we had to continue to help Nyadire or it might fail," Christ United Methodist Church member and Nyadire Connection chair Drew Harvey said.

Part of that effort includes cases of medical supplies donated by Allegheny General and Jefferson Hospitals. The group also worked with the Brother's Brother Foundation. Harvey hopes to expand the connection to include Western Pennsylvania institutions like University of Pittsburgh Medical Center School of Nursing. Nyadire has a nursing school which is part of the education program which includes elementary and secondary education.

Bethel Park School District is the first education connection and is making an important contribution to assure that more than 123 orphans will have the economic resources to attend school for a year. Each class through the middle schools is sponsoring one orphan whose picture hangs in the room. That support includes raising $50 for school fees, uniforms and shoes which Timberland has donated. Also, each class has donated backpacks for their Nyadire counterparts and stuffed them with school supplies.

According to Bethel Park spokesperson Vicki Flotta, basics, like paper, are in short supply in Zimbabwe.

Mary Beth Zollars, Nyadire Connection member, has made the orphans, care her special charge.

"Last summer I was invited to meet with tribal headmen. They introduced 100 of their most vulnerable orphans. These are the children which Bethel Park School District,its staff, students and Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) are helping," she said.

The project is also a geography lesson as every class learns where Zimbabwe is, its history and culture, and current troubled status.

Bethel Park's High School club Intereact has asked Zollars to send pictures of 200 orphans so the group can sponsor additional students. Blaire Volbers and Katie Duerr are Interact members and were leaders in the Darfur fundraising effort.

Connections are all about people. Harvey said that caring people like Bethel Park Asst. Supt. Nancy Rose, Christ United Methodist Outreach Coordinator Sarah Bickey and former Memorial Elementary School teacher Mary Kay Miller have also contributed to make the Bethel Park School District contribution possible.

" We are trying to bring a paralyzing world problem down to a kid to kid level," Harvey said.

The Nyadire Connection has its own web site, www.Nyadire.org if you want more information or how to help.