BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer
Into her 25th year as a consultant, Sylvia Allen had shared her marketing savvy with countless groups in the United States and abroad. But she could remember none that listened more intently than the group of Ugandan villagers standing before her in a semicircle.
Allen had observed that the village of Masaka had row after row of tiny, modest stores with advertising signs for large companies plastered all over them.
“I asked, ‘How much do they pay you for that right?’ They looked at me blankly. I said, ‘Let me teach you the American way. It will be 2,000 shillings [that was roughly $1 a month] or you can prepay and it will be 20,000 shillings.’ They said, ‘We can’t do that.’ I said, ‘Then tell them to take their signs down.’ ”
The head of Allen Consulting in Holmdel was in Africa at the invitation of WorldVision, a nonprofit headquartered in Seattle, Wash., whose mission is to help people in underdeveloped countries.
Traveling as part of a contingent of Christian ministers forging partnerships with local churches, Allen visited villages in Tanzania and Uganda in May 2003.
“WorldVision has a large presence there, particularly in Uganda where there is such devastation because of AIDS,” she explained recently. “So many children are orphans living in poverty. The average annual income in Uganda is $600 per year.”
Allen was in Africa as a result of a chance meeting with David Krentel, then program director for WorldVision, who was auditing the class on fund raising she teaches each summer at New York University’s two-week Summer Institute.
Krentel asked if she would join a group that would be going to Uganda and Tanzania to find ways to work with locals to improve their lives.
“He said, ‘Do you want to go to Africa?’ Allen recounted, “and I said yes. I have no idea why I said that because I never wanted to go to Africa.
“But I got my master’s in culture and policy, and I studied the African culture. So I almost felt like this was synchronicity — ‘I studied this, here came the opportunity, I’d better go.’ That’s what went through my mind.”
Allen spent 12 days visiting villages, the only woman among a group of four clergymen exploring ways to work together with the villages to build clinics, improve the lives of families, whatever the need was.
“We were greeted by 500 people in the villages. We broke up into groups. I had a translator, but I asked myself, How am I going to talk to these people?” she said. “Then I reminded myself I had taught my whole life.”
Each day, Allen talked to a different group — people with AIDS, midwives, community leaders and small-business owners.
The stories she heard revealed the ravages of AIDS on the lives of children who were left orphaned, often homeless and hungry.
“I asked a husband and wife with AIDS if their children go to school,” she said. “They said they didn’t have the money for schoolbooks. How much was it? Ten dollars for four years.”
After addressing the group of shop owners, Allen was approached by a tribal leader, who said, “The children would
like you to be their grandmother,” Allen recalled.
It was then that she noticed the children standing around her.
“They were from the primary school and ranged from 5 to 16 years old. The school has 418 children, and of those more than 80 percent are orphans. He was asking if I would help them.
“So I said, ‘I’ll be their grandmother. You have my word.’ ”
When she returned to the United States, Allen founded Sylvia’s Children Inc., which was incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 in April.
Fund-raisers have included a drive for school supplies and selling handmade angel dolls for Mother’s Day.
The holiday goal is to raise $6,700 for the 418 schoolchildren. A $15 donation will provide a child with a toy, a new shirt or dress, and a party with food and drink.
Sylvia’s Children is also sponsoring an adopt-a-child program. A donation of $360 a year ($30 per month) can totally support one child.
“So far, of 58 orphans, 10 have been adopted,” said Allen.
To date, Sylvia’s Children has raised just over $10,000 toward the goal of purchasing a house for the orphans. The aim is to raise $20,000 to buy a house for the children and the equivalent of $20,000 per year to take care of food, clothing, tutors and housekeepers for the children living on the street, she explained.
The next goal is to provide the primary school with $45,000 per year.
“Long-term,” Allen said, “plans are to buy a bunch of homes for poor orphans, put a roof over their heads, feed them, clothe them, care about them, educate them, because it’s my belief that if I can educate them, I will make a difference in their lives.
“There are 30 boys on the street, 418 kids in the school, that’s 448 children — children that I gave a better chance to in life,” she said. “With education, they will know they can get out of poverty, that they don’t have to accept the status quo.
“I would like to help them go to college. Hopefully, it will change the life of the village. It will take several generations; it won’t happen overnight, but I can start it.
“You have to make a difference,” Allen said. “You cannot go somewhere and experience what I did and walk away.”
Donations to Sylvia’s Children may be made via the Web site: www.sylviaschildren.org., by mail to 89 Middletown Road, Holmdel 07733, or by phone, (732) 946-2711.