A quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi says generally:
Preach the gospel constantly, and when necessary, use words.
For some people, reaching out to those in need and giving their “time, talent, and treasure” is a key element of who they are. Dan Harrison and Janette Henderson of Pittsford, New York are these sorts of altruistic people. Together, this couple practices both charity close to home (providing immediate relief to people in crisis) and philanthropy globally (helping people solve their problems over the long-term).
Dan is a Chemical Engineer specializing in digital printing and imaging chemistry who holds over 100 patents. After a long career with Kodak and IIMAK, Dan now consults and has more time for his philanthropic and outdoor pursuits. He is an avid hiker and canoer. As part of their church, First Presbyterian Society of Pittsford, he has participated in an annual summer camp for disadvantaged youth in Jamaica (Jamaican Advantage through Sports for Youth, or JASY) and traveled several times to Rehema for Kids’ In Step Children’s Home in Kenya to work on construction projects and provide STEM education to the nearly 300 kids residing at the orphanage. According to Dan, “the kids at the orphanage all have age-appropriate jobs and are learning responsibility. They are going to be future leaders in Kenya.”
Janette comes from Glasgow, Scotland, and has a PhD in linguistics, specializing in phonetics. She came to the US on a study abroad program to the University of Connecticut and met Dan when he was in graduate school there. Janette leads and serves on many committees which make policy decisions for their church and acts as a liaison for 70 (mainly rural) churches in the Finger Lakes area. She uses her lovely Scottish voice to speak up on social and racial justice issues for disadvantaged people in her community and to organize outreach activities, such as a volunteer pantry and weekly meal served at a traditionally Black, inner-city church. She puts her delicious cooking skills to use a lot! Dan and Janette have two sons and three grandchildren.
A Chance Meeting
“It was a joy to have her spending time with us.”
How did Dan and Janette connect with African Girls Can? Well, long before the organization was begun, they met co-founder Phoebe. Phoebe Aringo (married name now Mulinde) traveled to the United States in 2008 as a guest of another Pittsford resident, Carol Plank. Carol was a nurse implementing research studies for HIV antiviral medicine for Pfizer, Inc. in Kampala, Uganda when she met Phoebe, a recent Makerere University graduate, working in a lab. (We appreciate Carol’s Facebook birthday fundraisers for AGC and the wonderful t-shirts she embroidered for the girls.*) Phoebe had an interest in attending nursing school in the US, but unfortunately did not have the right visa to study in the US. She was feeling sad about this and seeking solace in a church. Carol’s house was right across the street from First Presbyterian Church of Pittsford and Phoebe walked into a Bible Study group one evening. She then attended Bible Study and shared her perspective on Christianity every Wednesday night. She also became a part of Dan and Janette’s family, like a sister to their sons Andrew and James. This chance encounter certainly impacted many lives!
Serendipity also greatly changed Phoebe’s life. In addition to a lifelong friendship with Dan and Janette, one impactful experience was accompanying a church mission trip that partnered with Habitat for Humanity to aid in rebuilding efforts in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. Phoebe learned that there is indeed serious poverty in America and that she had applicable skills to contribute and could make a difference. Dan feels Phoebe’s volunteer spirit and sense of purpose was sparked through this pivotal trip to Pearlington, MS. “And, the people in Pearlington were amazed to meet a real African person who came to help them!” said Dan.
African Girls Can simply would not exist if not for the jump start provided by Dan and Janette and the First Presbyterian church community. The church sponsored our very first two students in 2016. Those young women, Nancy and Rebecca, successfully completed Ordinary Level secondary school at St. Katherine’s in Lira, Uganda, and progressed to earn nursing certificates. They are ready to go out into their communities to provide a valuable service and at the same time will be able to support themselves. (Stay tuned for more on the new nurses.)
After seeing photos and letters from Nancy and Rebecca over the years, tangible proof of the girls’ progress, the church’s Women’s Group decided to sponsor two additional girls. The church has placed trust in Phoebe as a former church member and knowing that she is in Uganda personally directing spending. Dan and Janette have individually sponsored a fifth girl, as well as purchased a sewing machine for St. Katherine School’s Design and Textiles course.
Dan believes that an essential skill for a scientist like himself is stick-to-it-ness. “If you keep on trying at something, you can be successful. Just don’t give up.” This is what he would like to tell the schoolgirls when he meets them one day.
We are incredibly grateful to Dan and Janette (and the entire First Presbyterian Society of Pittsford community) for their enthusiastic, generous support, for their friendship, and for basically being excellent human beings and role models in charity and philanthropy.
A Conversation with Dan and Janette
On Women’s Empowerment
Dan: Women are the most underutilized natural resource in the world. I think the solution to African countries getting out of the corruption and the lack of opportunity is to empower women so that they can become better educated, that they can start businesses, that they can begin to gain the political power that they need to start to share ruling these countries. I think that women tend to be a whole lot less aggressive when it comes to warring, they tend to be more even tempered and more able to negotiate peace. And that’s how I think we are going to get to a more peaceful world is to have more women leaders involved.
On Girls Education and African Girls Can
Janette: It’s a pretty simple answer. I know how important education is for women in particular. I grew up in a lower income family and my parents bust their buns to get me to a good high school and college. Remembering how I benefited from that, combined with knowing what a wonderful and trustworthy person Phoebe is. And $500 a girl for a whole school year – it’s unbelievably good value. To see a girl educated for just $500 is amazing.
I didn’t know about the young girls getting married off at 14 because their families couldn’t afford to raise them. That was a big emotional stab to the heart when I heard that. And the thought that AGC was afraid when Covid hit that they might go home and get married off was hard to take too.
The photographs that AGC sends the church are very helpful. I showed a photograph of one of the kids with her mother outside the mud hut to both the Outreach Committee and the Presbyterian Women’s Group. I said, “This is where these girls actually live. That really is reality for them. And for $500 a year you can send them to high school, and it includes everything.” In this socioeconomic area, $500 is not a reach.
On Church Missions
Dan: Local, national, and international missions are a critical part of the identity of our church. We take a real interest in the impact that the dollars that we donate make and charities and NGOs in which we have direct contact and participate in get a very high priority because we can see exactly the benefits that are being provided to the community. We send crews to help in disaster recovery in part to help our people grow spiritually and emotionally. It’s an incredible experience for people to spend a week helping others recover from disaster. Our church in conjunction with a number of other organizations around town will be building a house every year in Rochester with Habitat for Humanity.
We’ve worked in a number of different African countries and the kind of things we like to do are human and facility development. This is a life changing experience for the church members who go on these trips. The people we go and serve learn that Americans have kind hearts. We built a school at In Step Children’s Home in Kenya that goes from Kindergarten all the way through a newly opened 9th grade classroom and also provide services like dentistry. We feel like we have 300 grandchildren when we go there.
