Teen's trip to Africa inspires a mission to aid orphans

It was a mix of teenage adventurism and determination that landed Annie Arnzen on a plane heading to a Botswana orphanage a year ago.

Her father was going on a business trip, and he reluctantly agreed to take his daughter, but only if she could come up with a good reason for coming along.

She came up with a doozy.

"Straight away, I got my heart set on working in an orphanage," said Annie, a 14-year-old ninth-grader from North Andover. "I learned that the two things Botswana was known for was their diamonds and AIDS.... All I could think of was the thousands of children that must be parentless because of this disease."

She spent a week tending to preschoolers orphaned by AIDS. Today, she keeps up her commitment to the orphanage by selling jewelry to raise money to expand the facilities.

"I know that trip changed her life and her perspective of what's going on in the world and what's going on in Africa," said her father, Breck Arnzen.

"It's wonderful to have someone who is actually doing this service for Botswana," said the Rev. Ralph Galen of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Andover, where Annie sold her jewelry this month. "There's a global AIDS epidemic, and we have to start acting like a world community to find the source of why we have AIDS."

Through the Internet, Annie found that the international charity SOS Children's Villages had an orphanage for children of AIDS victims in Botswana. After a few phone calls, she learned that the group had a facility just outside Gabarone, the capital, that would be happy to have her help.

So in January 2006, this otherwise ordinary teen -- private school student, horseback rider, and soccer player -- was heading into the heart of southern Africa. Her father, a Peace Corps veteran who worked a few years in the Ivory Coast, believed that the potential benefits far outweighed the risks.

Botswana, he said, is one of the safest nations in Africa, and Annie would be working with an internationally known charity. Add to that the opportunity to see a part of the world few adults do, and he realized it was just the sort of thing he wanted his daughter to do.

"I think what she did was nothing short of remarkable, and the courage that she showed -- it's a big stretch for a 13-year-old," he said. "I also knew that she had some supervision. I knew that she was in good care. They welcomed her and immediately put her to her assignment."

The assignment was to care for preschool-age children starved for attention, a task Arnzen settled into nicely, after what she admits was a slightly unsettling start. On her first day at the orphanage, her driver was two hours late to take her back to the hotel where she was staying with her father.

However, it's the assignment she has taken on since her return that has turned out to be the real challenge.

Annie was home for eight months when she received a letter from Derek James, director of the Botswana facility, saying the orphanage was overcrowded and turning away needy children. James wondered about fund-raising prospects in the United States and if there were any way the Arnzens could help.

Annie was skeptical, but then the thoughts of the children in her care for that one week came flooding back. In November, she read on the Internet about jewelry-making as a means of raising money, so she bought some heart-shaped charms and shiny wire from craft stores and went to work.

Soon, she had recruited her brother and two sisters into the effort, named Precious Cause, after a 1-year-old orphan Annie cared for. So far, the four have brought in $3,000. This month, she told North Andover High School's democracy class about her trip, and now students are designing and selling heart-shaped jewelry in the North Andover cafeteria at lunch time for the cause.

The goal is $300,000, which James says he needs to expand the orphanage.

"That was a huge number; the thought of trying to raise that kind of money was intimidating," Annie said. "But as I thought about it, it brought back the whole experience, and I thought about the kids. This was something I could give back to them."

Annie knows she's not going to raise $300,000. Not while there's still homework to do and soccer games to play. But her sincerity, drive, and early success have attracted some adult attention.

She has been making the rounds of local churches that agreed to let her speak to their congregation and set up shop after services to sell her jewelry.

After her visit to the Andover church, Galen said he will ask UU Mass Action, a state coalition of Unitarian Universalist congregations, to take up the cause. Eventually, he hopes to catch the ear of the denomination's national AIDS-relief effort, the UU Global AIDS Coalition, which consists of about 50 groups assembled from congregations across the country that have dedicated themselves to fighting the disease.

"Those orphanages have to be built, and this young lady is helping from the goodness of her heart," Galen said. "We're a tiny congregation, but we'd like to help her now become part of our larger global relief effort."

Annie is also getting some high-powered help from professional storyteller Jay O'Callahan, who has performed before thousands in New York's Lincoln Center and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

O'Callahan will be reading Annie's account of her time in Botswana at Andover's Old Town hall on Feb. 4 at 3 p.m.

It's a roughly 30-minute story about a 13-year-old undertaking a very adult mission in a poorly understood part of the world seen through the eyes of a teenager who, these days, is anything but average.

"Other kids don't see the appeal of going off to a different country and taking care of sick kids," Annie said. "But, I know those children didn't have a lot of people caring for them and they weren't getting a lot of attention, and that was something I was able to give them."

Annie Arnzen can be reached at Annie_Arnzen@ concordacademy.org.