Greg Felsen
Khotsong! Peace to All. My name is Greg Felsen and I am a founding member of the G.R.O Foundation. From August 2005 through December of 2007, I was living and working at Molapo High School in Leribe, Lesotho. My primary focus at Molapo High School was on establishing a strong infrastructure for sustainable agriculture projects that could generate income to support orphaned and vulnerable children. During this time, seeing the great need for support of many Lesotho youth, I teamed up with James White (a pediatric HIV nurse) and Jean Margaritis (a community advocate) to form The GRO Foundation. Our first project, The Family Scholarship Fund was created to assist high school level students at Molapo High School. We didn’t want to be another program that simply gave funds. We sought to create a student family that supported each other and learned together in a lifelong and meaningful way. We established a program that incorporates teacher mentoring and peer tutoring as a central aspect. The students meet on a regular basis to discuss educational issues but also personal issues that they are facing.
The greatest moments I saw of the program becoming a family were when the students themselves started organizing support for each other relating to tutoring support from older students to younger ones and peer support when gathering for funerals in support of a student’s personal loss at home. In addition, I was moved when we would have the end of the year BBQ (Braii) and see all the family come together to cook and clean and just plain dance and have fun. It was truly inspirational. I took a great interest in helping the other G.R.O related projects get off the ground and am committed to making them a success. I look forward to sharing more stories about the students and the work that The G.R.O Foundation is doing in Lesotho. There is so much potential and we hope to make an impact in creating a healthier world. Until then much love.
Posted under The Mission
