Knowledge empowerment

A successful Kenyan entrepreneur who ascended from poverty to run his own financial consulting firm is giving back to a Bismarck Diocese mission that partly financed his academic success.
 
Hesborn Birisi, 34, has nearly completed a Ph.D. and is helping support some of the 415 AIDS orphans via the Bismarck African Mission program, located in western Kenya.
 
In August, missionary worker Patricia Clark of Bismarck hosted the Birisi family. Between visiting the region's tourist sites, he spoke to local groups about what the mission did for him as an impoverished youth and how it benefits orphans of the AIDS epidemic today.
 
The mission assisted Hesborn when he was 17. His family lacked enough money to afford high school. In Kenya, students must pay for their secondary public education before they can advance to the university.
Hesborn was not an AIDS orphan, but in the single-parent home, he and three siblings relied on their mother's income earned making sweaters to survive.  
 
Despite the poverty, the bright teen wasn't deterred.
 
He walked seven miles to seek help from Alice Hager of Underwood, N.D., then a key diocesan missionary in Kenya. "I met with Madame Alice. I shared my story."
 
After a careful background check, Hager surprised him with the news the mission would pay his scholarship.
 
"The scholarship allowed me to complete grade three and four of high school," he said, adding it would have been very difficult to finish high school without it.
 
He made good marks and qualified for the public university where he would later be subsidized by a government sponsorship.
 
He finished high school in 2002, but a backlog of students delayed his start at the university until 2005. As he waited for a college slot to open, Hesborn volunteered at the Bismarck Mission, assisting with an AIDS awareness education program.
 
He and the missionaries brought an AIDS patient to Kenyan churches, schools, community centers and youth groups to warn them about the deadly disease. At the time, the subject was still taboo and like an omen to the culture, said Hesborn.
 
"He would say that AIDS is real and it kills. He was more concerned, especially about the youth. Because he contracted the virus as a youth," said Hesborn. "He was instilling in them good morals, avoiding bad behavior. He was criticizing about the victimization of AIDS patients. The mission was focused on education at that time to avoid it." He credits the program for reducing the rate AIDS spread in his country.
 
Through the Kenya government grant, Hesborn earned an undergraduate degree in accounting and became a certified public accountant. His internship with the Jesuit priests’ organization involved serving as an accountant for their development program.
 
He returned to the university to earn a master's degree in business administration.
 
Hesborn continues to run a successful consulting firm for finance and business startups. He is a tutorial fellow/lecturer and is preparing his Ph.D. thesis about mobile financing and financial stability. He also teaches students in accounting and finance.
 
Change in focus of the mission
 
In the mid 2000s, the Bismarck Diocese mission changed the focus to concentrate on AIDS orphans, said Hesborn and Clark.
 
In 2004, the United Nations started funding medical treatment of AIDS patients. Although the outbreak slowed in Kenya, hundreds of children were left behind, vulnerable, poor and uneducated.
 
"HIV/AIDs became a crisis in Kenya…. They have nothing. The only asset they have is their mind," said Hesborn. "The mission focuses now on knowledge empowerment. They can use that knowledge to change their lifestyle, their social class of living. Without help from the mission, they would not prosper. The help is very important."
 
The mission involves a regular food distribution program and will build the children a simple shelter in extreme cases, providing them farm animals as a long-term source of food and income, paying for their education and mentoring. The program is now working on a project to purify water sources.
 
He said the HIV rate is now dropping and he credits the mission for some of that.
 
Yet, there, job seekers still outnumber job opportunities. Hesborn encourages youth both to complete their education and to pursue independent business startups of their own.
 
He said the mission also encourages the growth of the children's faith as well as their education. Donations to the mission help the children succeed, said Hesborn.
 
The Birisi family, Hesborn, Maureen and their two children, son, Terrence, 7, and daughter, Mercy Shantell, 3, visited Medora, Mount Rushmore, the University of Mary, Lake Metigoshe and spent time visiting local schools to tell Hesborn's inspiring story.
 
In Kenya, he also shares his story with the orphans at the mission and assures them they are not alone. "I was in that life before, but you can make it in life if you are determined, if you are focused on your vision and mission, you will achieve it," he will tell the orphans. He encourages them to have good learning skills, gives them career guidance and has given financial support to orphans himself. He mentors groups of boys and girls. He and his wife also serve to foster a 12-year-old girl in their home during times when she’s not attending boarding school.
 
More about the Bismarck African Mission
 
The Bismarck African Mission has assisted Kenyan children for more than 20 years.
 
Launched in 1990 at the bequest of Bishop John Kinney, the mission was education based and focused on sending poor children to school, Clark said.
 
In 2007, organizers agreed the greatest need was to send the AIDS orphans to school. "In 1990, AIDS wasn't very prevalent. But, by 2000, it was," Clark said.
 
The orphans often stay in their home they once lived with their now-deceased parents, according to Clark. The children will help neighboring relatives like grandparents or aunts and uncles farm and get food, she said. The mission has provided basic needs like lanterns to study by at night, a small portion of food and a weekly allowance. Livestock such as chickens and goats are also granted to those who do well in school.
 
The program has also raised money for mattresses and blankets for the orphans. "We had kids sleeping on rags on a mud floor,” she said. Hasborn said he was one of them as a young boy in Kenya.
 
"We probably provide half of what they need. They have to raise a garden, cook the food," she said.
 
Clark said the unemployment rate in Kenya is 60 to 70 percent and more than half the population is under the age of 25.
 
"The job market is really tight," Clark said. "Hesborn has managed to get really good jobs. He has a big heart for kids who have other problems. He helped other orphans in the program and sponsored other students with high school costs.”
 
The mission is fully funded by donations to the annual African Mission Appeal conducted by the diocese. In addition to Clark, several missionaries from the diocese have spent time in service to the diocesan mission. Currently, Fr. David Morman is the Bismarck lead missionary in Kenya. His blog updates can be viewed on Facebook at Bismarck Catholic Mission. More information can also be found at the diocesan website at bismarckdiocese.com/african-mission.
 
Invited to visit the U.S.
 
Patricia invited Hesborn and his family to North Dakota for a visit. For their hospitality, Patricia and her husband, Ron Dvorak, were treated to a few authentic Kenyan dishes, prepared by Hesborn's wife Maureen, 29, a math and chemistry teacher. The couple met while attending the university.
 
Maureen prepared a Kenyan staple and favorite of the family, uagali. White corn flour is gradually poured into a boiling pan of water that thickens gradually into a solid cake-like base. It is garnished with boiled kale and a spicy red meat sauce.
 
"He was very smart and applied himself," Clark said. "He has become successful because he has taken every opportunity to pull himself up with the very little he had. He worked very hard," Clark said.