Volunteer teaches us lessons in compassion
Susan Weinert went to India as a young woman, fresh out of university. She taught English in Calcutta. While she was there, she caught the eye of Mother Teresa, who asked if Susan would teach English to her postulants. Mother Teresa was persuasive. Susan taught the would- be nuns, and she also worked with the poorest of the poor. She would not say this. I will say it for her. She wanted to make a difference in the world.
After four years in India, she returned to Canada, got her teacher’s degree, started a family and began to teach in city schools. She has done so for the past 30 years. But the urge to make a difference is her second nature.
During semester breaks, and in the summers, she has made a habit of volunteering wherever in the world she can find a way to be of service. She has worked in a hospital in France, caring for children with spina bifida. She has taught English to Polish artists, so they might more easily sell their work to tourists. Once she took a semester off and went to Chile; she just upped and went. She ended up teaching English to a group of high school teachers, and working in a day program for poor Chilean seniors. She has also taught English to tour guides in Brazil.
That is a practical matter. A tour guide who speaks English can earn more money.
Last year Susan went to Haiti.
I should tell you that, at the moment, she teaches at the Subway Academy, a high school for kids who have jobs, are athletes, work in the arts, or do not otherwise fit into the regular school system.
I know Susan is a year from retirement. I know Haiti is a dangerous place. I took my questions to her at the Academy. She got her students settled, checked some assignments, made sure everyone had what they needed to get their day’s work started, and then we sat and talked. She said, “ I’ve always wanted to go to Haiti. I started writing to people, to see if I could find something useful to do.” See? Right there. That’s it in a nutshell.
Something useful to do. She wrote to a bank that specializes in small loans to women. “That fell through.” She wrote to an organization that runs a series of health care clinics. “ They got cold feet.” And then she found a Canadian nongovernment organization. “ They run an orphanage. I sent them a letter. They were nervous, but they never said no.”
That’s as good as yes.
Susan said, “ Some people were worried. There’s a lot of kidnapping there. But the Toronto School Board wasn’t nervous. I teach English. Now, if I was a math teacher . . .” She laughed at her own joke; math teachers are the rarer species. As with all her other travels, Susan paid her own way to Haiti. The orphanage is 40 kilometres from Port- Au- Prince. It is small; or rather, the budget is small: $ 40,000 a year to feed, clothe and care for 150 orphans.
Susan said, “ Really, only a third of the children are orphans. The rest are kids whose families are too poor to care for them.” An example: a new mother brought her baby, with the intention of leaving the child behind. The woman who runs the orphanage said she was sorry, she had no baby formula, and in any case could not provide for an infant. The new mother excused herself to go to the washroom. She never returned for her child. Some of the children attend classes in the orphanage itself, but almost half go to a nearby town for their education. “ They travel in a tap- tap; that’s a little bus.” The orphanage buys their books and pays for the bus.
Susan taught English while she was there. She also brought skipping ropes, paints and brushes. She said, “As soon as I got there, I knew why I’d come. It was to raise money for these kids. This is what lights me up. It’s not altruism. I’m getting something from this. Come here. Let me show you.” She led me to a small room in the back of the Academy, and pulled out a sheaf of watercolours: primitive depictions of cruise ships, houses, palm trees, and voodoo- scented landscapes featuring snakes and empty chairs.
“ Some of these kids had never used paints before. It’s my idea to sell these to raise funds for the orphanage.” She has persuaded a gallery to show the watercolours. You get the idea that Susan is a persuasive woman. The orphanage paintings are on view at the Jessop Gallery, 55 Mill St., in the Distillery District, from 6 to 8 p. m. tonight.
If you buy a watercolour, you get a tax receipt. The money, all of it, goes to the orphanage. Susan guarantees that. She retires from teaching at the end of the year. She said she does not want aparty. She wants money for the orphanage. The kids of the Subway Academy will be poorer when she retires. The children of the orphanage will be infinitely richer. Joe Fiorito usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Email: jfiorito@thestar.ca.