Infinite Family: Video Mentoring of Children in Africa

It’s the best part of the work week for Karen Boytos, an administrative assistant with Bombardier in West Mifflin.

Each Wednesday at 10 a.m., Boytos traipses to a quiet space set up with a computer. For the next 30 minutes, the monitor becomes a window into another world 9,000 miles away as Boytos visits with a young teen from Johannesburg who lost her mother to HIV and AIDs.  

Bombardier is a corporate sponsor of Infinite Family, a Pittsburgh and New York-based organization that connects AIDS and HIV-challenged teens in South Africa with employees and individuals through Internet mentoring. Twelve employees of the global transportation company currently mentor the children--they call them net buddies—many of whom are affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty. By the end of the year, the company hopes to have 120 employees involved.

For Bombardier, building a people mover system in South Africa in anticipation of 2010 World Cup Soccer, the program offers hope to a nation in need of far more than high-tech transport.

The children there lead very different lives from American children, Boytos explains. They have very little in the way of clothing. Many of them help care for siblings and prepare meals.

“She tells me about her friends, her hobbies, stuff like that,” Boytos says  brightly. “It’s really surprising how fast you can form a connection with the children. To these kids America is such a strange, far off land. They are very, very poor. This is an opportunity to help them respect themselves, to provide new opportunities for them.”

Mike Festko, vice president of the Automated People Mover Division concurs. “When apartheid ended in South Africa there was a huge split between the classes. As a result, a lot of big businesses and corporations (working in South Africa) have made a commitment to help improve the economy in the region. This is the perfect thing for corporations where employees spend time at their desk. It’s a small part of their day in support of the children.”

Joining Forces
Infinite Family’s video mentoring program was sparked when two women came together through their own adoption of South African orphans. Dana Gold of Munhall met New Yorker Amy Stokes in 2004. Together they were looking for a way to support the children of South Africa within their own culture and context so they could grow up to be leaders of their communities and country.

With the help of Pittsburgh volunteers and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, they launched Infinite Family, Stokes as executive director and Gold as program director. Together they serve as ambassadors, encouraging corporate sponsorships and partnerships—like Mullen, which helps with marketing materials and literature—and individual video mentorships, embracing a young South African from home every week.

For a small monthly fee and an hour each week, anyone who passes the criminal background check can help to inspire a teen to pursue their dreams and an education, says Gold. The program is growing with another 40 young adults coming into the program next month.

“By 2010 it is anticipated that 50 million children will be orphaned in Sub-Sahara Africa,” Gold says. “That is the equivalent of two-thirds of all U.S. children under the age of 12.”

The children, ages 11 to 22, love video conferencing, VC as they call it, breaking to a run to get to the center to see their  “net buddy.” Their joy is apparent in notes they write to Gold. “I see Lori and I tell myself I got a mother. I smile in my heart and I say yes, my dream has come true,” one writes. Another says, “I feel like I’m being born again or I’m going to visit a place that I love.”
 
Support money from the U.S. goes directly to non-profit centers in South Africa to help meet the child’s food, clothing, housing and school costs.

 “It’s a wonderful experience connecting Pittsburghers and taking them into orphanages and villages in South Africa every week,” she adds. “It’s remarkable what we see this doing for the children. There’s an incredible bond and closeness; it’s really an enriching and stabilizing experience for them.”

For more information on how to become a video mentor or join Infinite Family, click here.

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Deb Smit is innovation and job growth news editor at Pop City.

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Child at computer in South Africa courtesy Infinite Family.  All other photographs copyright Brian Cohen.