Her camera safely tucked in her backpack, Lyn Ofrane and her fellow travelers make their way to the grounds where they will be spending the next 11 days. Volunteers all, some have been here before, but for many, including Ofrane, this is the first time in Africa. Though unsure just what to expect, they feel no trepidation – just the simple anticipation of meeting the young residents of these new surroundings. Cresting a grassy hill, the group takes in the vast African landscape spread out before them, and in the distance, a group of low-lying buildings. It is then that they, too, are finally noticed.

Spilling out of the buildings are dozens of children, the purpose of this pilgrimage. Steadily approaching their visitors, the youngsters float and bob across the plain, holding hands, chattering animatedly in their native Kiswahili, their uniforms a seemingly endless sea of red sweaters. The children smile broadly, sneaking sidelong glances at these new guests. In the foreground stand three of the youngsters, one turning to look at Ofrane with wide eyes as the trio leads their new company back to the buildings from which they emerged. Instinctively, Ofrane swings into motion, slinging her backpack to the ground. She readies her camera and focuses; the shutter clicks, freezing the moment in time.

This activist-minded artist has finally begun her long-awaited journey, to catalog a trip she will not soon forget. This scene, in the Maasai Mara region of Kenya, is just one in a series documenting the labor of love of a group of Maywood Rotarians who travel to the region yearly, maintaining the grounds and buildings where the children gain learning they could not have imagined even five years ago.

Opening the shutter
Ofrane, of Teaneck, first picked up a camera when she was young, never once considering photography as a profession – let alone a means of global activism. It was just a hobby, really. But Ofrane’s gift, a keen photographic eye, eventually led to a thriving practice taking portraits – and an opportunity to give back in a whole new, and incredibly rewarding, way.

The vehicle for Ofrane, the Maywood Rotary Club, launched its Kenya Project in 2003, “sowing the seeds of love,” as the group’s literature phrases it, at Empopongi Elementary School in the country’s southwestern corner. The project’s founder, Kevin Williams, is a lifelong Rotarian; he and his partner, Maywood Mayor Timothy J. Eustace, took their two adopted sons to Africa to provide the boys a sense of their roots. The couple’s younger son, Cory, then just 10, was so moved by the poverty of the Maasai people that he implored Williams, upon return to the United States, to find some way to help. “I tried to talk him out of it,” Williams recalls, “because I thought it would be impossible to get money over there, and he didn’t listen to me.” Cory persisted in his own efforts, bringing photos the family had taken of Maasai classrooms to his own school. Pictures in hand, he went from class to class to speak about the trip, ultimately raising $1,495 in donations. Then, he handed Williams the money, saying, “Dad, make sure this gets there and feeds the kids.”

Years before Williams and Eustace and their sons traveled to the region, teachers and students there would gather under a large Joshua tree, for shade and shelter from the rain during lessons. By the time the Maywood Rotary Kenya Project was in development, two classrooms had been built – but, even then, lessons were taught in adjacent spaces, hindering the students’ concentration. And the nearest source of clean water was a stream a half-mile away.

Today, there are individual classrooms for every grade from nursery through eighth. And, thanks to a micro-financed loan from Ofrane’s husband of 32 years, Avi, a spring-fed well currently serves the Maasai and residents of seven surrounding villages. The school is now equipped with school supplies and more modern textbooks; the previous offerings had dated to the 1950s. The project also provides uniforms for the students – a requirement for attendance in this former British colony.

“Sometimes, I feel like it’s just a drop in the bucket,” Ofrane admits. “But, other times, I feel it takes just one person, and a passion for something, to make a difference. Every one of these people,” she adds, “has a tremendous strength for giving.”

A face to suffering
A seasoned portrait photographer, Ofrane captures life’s softer moments with clarity, earning intense loyalty from her paying clients. But, long before her July 2007 trip
to Africa, Ofrane did a different kind of photography, for several Bergen charities. Each October, she takes portraits of the children at Shelter our Sisters, which assists victims of domestic violence, and presents the images to their mothers. “The kids move from place to place, and photographs probably get lost in the process,” Ofrane explains. She also works with the Holly Center, a children’s shelter in Hackensack, and for Children’s Aid and Family Services, taking the photos for each child’s “life book,” as well as their adoption pictures. “It’s all so special, and it’s all so heartbreaking,” she says. “You want to take these kids away from any pain that they’ve had.”

It is this ability to capture the essence of her subjects that spurred Williams, a longtime friend, to invite Ofrane along on Maywood Rotary’s visit to the Maasai people. “Lyn has always been an incredibly good-hearted person,” Williams notes. “You can tell from all the projects she has devoted her time to before, but when she found this [one], it rested in a very special place in her heart. If you look at those pictures closely, you can see that Lyn is a mother to those children – all 309 of them.”

The Rotarians have made Ofrane’s Kenya images the basis of slideshows and books they present to other groups across Bergen. Bonifice Mwanzia, the school’s assistant vice principal, also visited New Jersey, joining Williams to deliver a series of talks about the project. The Ridgewood Rotary Club, in particular, has been listening. The club plans to adopt its own school; some members will accompany the Maywood group on its return trip this July, to witness, firsthand, the changes volunteering in Africa can effect.

There’s a lot to see. An organic garden Williams and his colleagues planted last year has tripled in size, yielding enough supplemental food for students that the school’s enrollment – all are guaranteed meals – has doubled. The volunteers also assisted the children in building bunk beds for the girls’ and boys’ dormitories. This summer, the Rotarians will tackle construction of a multipurpose room that will serve as a dining hall and venue for Sunday-morning church services and board of ed meetings. Long-term goals include seeing the kids through high school and on to college, to gain the earning power that will provide their siblings and future generations the same education they received.

A warm welcome
At the group’s welcoming ceremony last July, Ofrane was awed by the presentation of a high-school scholarship to the village’s first-ever female recipient. Each of the 20 volunteers was also assigned a “shadow,” to foster greater mutual understanding, and a crash course in the language. Ofrane hopes in the coming years to see more Maasai girls achieve this honor, and to raise the college tuition for her own shadow, Kadidi Kirrokor. Among the native words she learned, Ofrane remembers soapa (pronounced “show-pa”), Maasai for hello – literally, “I see you, and I honor you.” Who knew such a small word could convey such overwhelming sentiment?

To be sure, the trip was not without its hardships. A bomb scare during a layover at London’s Heathrow Airport caused the entire group’s luggage to be misplaced; Ofrane’s finally showed up, last among the travelers’, 10 days after their arrival in Kenya. Yet, this inconvenience proved a bonding experience for the newcomers, who shared all they could with one another. Ofrane was thankful, however, for her habit of keeping her camera and other tools of her trade in her carry-on bag.

During the visit, Ofrane made it a point to capture as many off-guard shots as possible. “Every time I aimed my camera, seven million kids got in front of it!” she marvels. They were just fascinated and curious – delightfully curious.” Ofrane – “a typical American,” Williams interjects – also exclaimed impulsively, “You know what these kids are missing? Class pictures!” The hastily arranged photos, class by class under the tree that was the children’s
first “school,” were ultimately developed, framed and sent to Empopongi; at Williams’ last trip, in December 2007, he found each picture, he notes, “so proudly hung in each classroom. And the kids can’t believe their own pictures are on the wall.”  

Experiences such as this pique the children’s natural curiosity, and reinforce the notion that the world, though vast, is in many ways small, with many good people eager to help those in need. Asked what the Maywood Rotary Kenya Project means to the kids, Mwanzia offers, “A lot. It means that we are taking them out of the darkness.” Because, after all, knowledge is light.