By Katherine Adams, The Daily News
GALVESTON, TEXAS — Alice Van Borssum raised nine children and then decided that when her youngest one went to kindergarten, she wanted to resume her own education.
She enrolled at Galveston College, and later at the University of Houston where she earned her master’s degree.
Van Borssum realized she had a gift, particularly for students who needed help with reading.
In December 2005, her death brought a sense of loss at Galveston College, where she continued to teach until the end of her life.
Babe Van Borssum, the eighth of Alice’s children, followed her mother’s footsteps and is also a teacher in upstate New York.
“I went to a conference and met someone who’s part of a nonprofit organization called Ethiopia Reads,” she said.
“I met Jane Kurtz, who is a children’s book author who grew up in Ethiopia and writes about biculturalism and about life in Ethiopia.”
Bicultural children are those who have left one culture and go to another.
“She writes books for kids who are having trouble belonging where they are, and she talked about this group called Ethiopia Reads,” Van Borssum said.
“It’s about developing a culture of literacy in Ethiopia. That put the bug into my ear. I really wanted to help.
“I think it had a lot to do with my mom, who had an adventurous spirit, settling into heaven, looking down and saying, ‘Hmm, what big idea can I throw down to Babe?’”
A year later, 11 teachers and librarians went to Ethiopia. Van Borssum said she raised $10,000 for books for the library the educators wanted to start in Addis Ababa.
She collected 500 books, which were stacked all over her living room floor. Upon arriving at the training center, she was thrilled to see all her books there in boxes, ready for eager readers to begin learning.
“It’s a teacher and librarian training center, and we’d like to name it after my mother,” she said.
“I have spent wonderful weeks in Ethiopia training teachers and librarians — doing all sorts of topics. We bring all our best practical ideas.”
On April 17, a presentation on Alice Van Borssum’s vision to bring the joy of books to everyone will be shown at Rosenberg Library.
“We’re going to do a fundraising event at the library, and we’ll show people slides and give information about the training center in Ethiopia named for my mother.
“The fundraiser is in memory of mom, and the proceeds will go to the training center. Almost all my siblings will be there. Everyone is welcome and we appreciate all donations.
“I have been to Ethiopia two times in the last six months. I’ve been asked to start up this training center, and I’d love to do it in my mom’s name.”
+++
At A Glance
WHAT: Fundraiser for training center in Ethiopia
WHEN: 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. April 17
WHERE: Wortham Auditorium in the Rosenberg Library, 2310 Sealy Ave., Galveston
On the Web
• www.ethiopiareads.org
2 thoughts on “Educator leaves literacy legacy in Ethiopia”
Meles kills and his patrons help. What Ethiopians wish is a Government that cares.
“He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses” (Proverbs 28:27).
We know there are millions of people in the world who need help to read, to writ, and to have a descent job to support themselves, their families, and their country. Many of these illiterate people are, no doubt, Ethiopians. They too need someone to help them read, write their names, and fill out job applications. As there are millions of illiterate people in this world, there are also millions of good and literate people who are ready to teach other people to read and write. One of these good people is an American- educated girl, Van Borssum, daughter of Alice Van Borssum, who traveled to Ethiopia two times for a noble purpose, i.e., to open a reading training center in Ethiopia. To start her project, she collected $10, 000 and 500 books for the children of Ethiopia. It is this type of a person we Ethiopians need – a person who brings money, without any attachment or precondition to it and builds with that money a project that would help the ordinary people, instead of putting the money into the pockets of Meles Seitanawi.
Van Borssum’s plan – to help Ethiopian children to read – is different from the kind of help Meles and Al Amoudi have been offering to the Ethiopian children. Theirs are to sell out thousands of Ethiopian children to foreigners, to transport the wealth of the country to London or Washington, to enrich themselves with their stolen money, and to stash the rest of the money under their pillows. I hope Van Borssum’s plan will go on uninterrupted by the muddy political schemes Meles Seitanawi has created to disrupt the non-prophet organizations from helping the Ethiopian people. For example, there are thousands of people ready to feed the Ogaden children, but Meles continues, from time to time, to disrupt the aids – medical aid, food, cloths, and books – the Ogaden children have been getting. In the same way, we do not know yet whether or not the Babe Van Borssum’s noble cause would work under the rotten leadership of Meles the plunderer. Who knows he may ask her to pay thousands of dollars to buy a permit to build her project in Ethiopia. If she refuses to do so, he may send her out of the country. I hope he will not do such an evil thing to her; if he does, he is not hurting her, but he is hurting his own country as he has been doing it for almost twenty years. However, if Van Borssum’s reading project is going to be built in Mekelle, Meles will donate over a million dollars to the project plus free housing and food for Van Borssum until the project is completed.
People with benevolent feelings like Babe Van Borssum will build schools, hospitals, and roads for the memory of their departed ones, but malicious people build costly sarcophagus for their dead bodies which has no value for the common people. I have heard the Mekelle people are preparing a blue print to build a huge statue for Meles Seitanawi next to the MU to express their appreciations for what he has done for the people of Mekelle, but I will be the biblical Josiah (2Kings 23:1-28) to go there and demolish the Meles’ statue into pieces when Ethiopia becomes liberated from his cruel hands.
Great men and great women do not build sepulchers made of marble stones for their burials; they would rather want to be berried in the place designated “for the unknown.” If such men and women have great fortunes, they will donate them to a church, to a university, to a hospital, or to a library. And that is what Babe Van Borssum has planned to build a reading center in Ethiopia for the memory of her mother, Alice Van Borssum. May the Almighty God bless the offspring of Alice Van Borssum! May the reading project planned by her daughter expand and reach out to all Ethiopian children!