Where did you start this adventure and why did you target this particular area?
I’ve been traveling to Africa for about two years. I started there with an invitation from Cori Stern, [the founder of the Next Right Thing], to be a part of an HIV workshop in a Liberian refugee camp in Ghana. And from that, everything else evolved. I got really involved with Cori, setting up some projects in Africa. When you’re there and spending time, you meet children who have medical conditions that just aren’t being taken care of in their own country, whether the care isn’t available or because the parents don’t have the funds to take care of it. Cori had been helping with medical issues like that for a number of years. Then she and I began to formalize the process and formed the Next Right Thing to really be able to help more children. We bring children into the U.S and we get doctors and hospitals to donate their services. The costs that need to be covered are in some cases the visas and passports for the children, and medical tests performed in their country so our doctors can approve them and transport them to the U.S. We work to get donors to provide those costs. (Those costs are met (or covered) through fundraising).
What language do you communicate in once you’re there?
A lot of it is an unspoken language. Many of the countries we work in are English-speaking countries. We have also been bringing children over from the Ivory Coast, or Cote d’Ivoire, which is a French-speaking country. I ended up spending six weeks there in January and February of last year. Originally, Cori and I were only going for two days, but they turned into six weeks. I wish I could say I’d picked up more French than I did, but luckily, we can find people to translate. Even when we’re transporting kids who don’t speak English, we find ways to communicate.
When you’re transporting the kids and their parents back to the U.S?
You know we almost always bring the kids without their parents, unless it’s a life and death situation, but it’s very difficult to get a visa for parents to travel. We’re easily able to get visas for just the children so that’s what we do in almost all cases.
Even if the child is an infant?
Even if the child is an infant, yes, I’ve traveled with a 5 month old infant.
So, Kristi, you’re almost like a surrogate mom for these children.
For such a short time! It’s really an amazing experience, but you have them for this transition period where they’re coming from their country to go to their host family in the U.S. To the little boy whose hands were burned, George, I was Mom, he called me Mom. He’s the love of my life, he’s such a doll.
Is your organization considering working with adoption agencies as well?
In a lot of cases the kids have parents so they’re not eligible for adoption, even if their parents would give them up, they’re not eligible. In the case of Emmanuel, who I just brought over, he is an orphan, and his host family is interested in adopting him. So, in some cases, that can happen. The children have to come back on the visa with which we bring them over, so the adoption … is completely separate. For our legal purposes they have to go back with the visa that we have received for them. We really want to keep our focus on raising money for the costs associated with getting a child to the U.S and then getting them back to their family.
How do identify the children who need the most help?
In some cases we’re there on the ground ourselves and we see the children. There are a number of kids in Budaburam, which is the name of the refugee camp in Ghana, so there are children there that we identify ourselves. But, in a lot of cases we have people on the ground there who know the work we’re doing. We just started working in the Ivory Coast this year, we have a liaison there. We did some press there so now the liaison is contacted by families who need help. People are aware that he’s working with U.S and that their children can get help. Every time I go back there, and I’ve been back twice since January of this year, there’s always a room-full of children and parents waiting for me to check them out. The first time it was so unexpected. I was there in June of this year and the liaison said, “Can I meet you at the hotel?” and I said, “Sure,” not knowing that there was going to be a room-full of people and kids, all waiting.
