Across the ocean, helping hands

ANCRAMDALE — Many readers know John and Jean Roccanova as teachers in the Webutuck Central School District. But while the Ancramdale husband-and-wife team are helping students in the classroom, they’re simultaneously helping students in another classroom, halfway around the globe.

With the recent incorporation of their not-for-profit organization, Grow Against Poverty, the Roccanovas have solidified a five-year- long relationship with a small village called Igero in Kenya. You won’t find it on a map, John says (and according to Google Maps, he’s right).

After reading an article in The New York Times about how the country’s recent introduction of free primary education created classrooms with exorbitant sizes, the Roccanovas reached out and helped sponsor a teacher through the International Child Support organization, paying for that teacher’s salary in an effort to reduce the students per classroom.

It was simply by chance that the school was based in Igero, but the Roccanovas have stuck with the village, which is primitive by their own description: “very basic living.â€

John and Jean have, in the last five years, raised more than $13,000 through the sales of John’s woodworking products and Jean’s hand-knit bags, personal hobbies they’ve cultivated over the years. It’s hard to supervise exactly how the money is being used, the two acknowledged, pointing out a bad experience with the South African company Roundabout Outdoor, which makes the PlayPump water system, essentially a merry-go-round that children use to activate a water pump to provide clean drinking water to impoverished areas.

“We just saw so much money being used for administrative purposes, we wanted something where all of the money goes to the cause,†John explained.

Earlier this year, the Roccanovas created Grow Against Poverty, after the already established Grow Against Poverty Kenya not-for-profit. All of the money raised by the Ancramdale family is filtered through a representative in Igero working for the not-for-profit Innovations for Poverty Action.

Among the things the Roccanovas have helped pay for include the teacher’s annual salary, the construction of two classrooms and the personal sponsorship of the high school education of a girl whose mother died from AIDS the year before. Future goals are to provide the Igero school with electricity and, hopefully, a computer and a copy machine.

“We just felt like it was a small enough place that we can actually do something there,†Jean said.

For the amount of time and effort invested in making a small village in eastern Africa a better place, the Roccanovas are content limiting their role in Igero. They’ve never been to Africa (although their daughter has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro), and when asked if they had any intentions of taking the trip, they only said that it was something they had thought about.

“Eventually we have plans to visit there,†John said.

For now at least, the family is satisfied using the hobbies they enjoy to try and make life better for someone else. And local businesses are helping. Buy a wooden bowl from John and it might come in a pizza box from Taro’s or a shoebox from Saperstein’s. Both are donated for the cause. The wood comes from scraps donated by local woodworking shops and lumber yards, and the yarn from Jean’s bags comes from a local yarn shop, also free of charge. And the next batch of “peace poles,†donated by the Wassaic Peace Sanctuary and built by students in John’s technology class, will have the phrase “May peace prevail on Earth†printed in Swahili.

This Saturday, Dec. 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., John and Jean again will hold an open house where wood crafts will be available for purchase. All proceeds will go to Grow Against Poverty. To support the Rocconova’s effort, either through donation or the purchase of wood crafts or knitted goods, call 518-329-2021 or e-mail roccanova@taconic.net.