Helping AIDS orphans
KOOTENAI, IDAHO – The paving equipment outside Maggie Mjelde’s house groans and rumbles, but Maggie hears the “Rocky” theme and wild cheers. There’s nothing wrong with Maggie’s ears or her mind.
She’s the mayor of Kootenai, a tiny town a javelin throw east of Sandpoint, and she’s determined to stick with the job until every street in her town is paved. She’s held the office since 1988.
“I’m tenacious,” she says, slightly embarrassed. “I’m ready to be done, but I want to finish the paving.”
Maggie is more focused than tenacious. Once she commits herself to a project, she quietly pours all her energy into it. That’s why more of Kootenai’s streets are paved every day.
It’s also why Maggie needs to lease a shipping container headed next month to Tanzania, Africa. She’s collected so many clothes, toys and supplies in the past year for a Tanzanian village devastated by AIDS that a shipping container is her best option for delivery.
“She has taken this on all on her own without committees and foundations, just a one woman-big heart, who sees a need and gets to work to fill it with compassion and smarts,” says Nancy Hastings, a Kootenai resident and fan of the mayor. “She’s always thinking, always has a minute for a child or a constituent.”
Maggie blushes at praise. She didn’t run for mayor to satisfy her ego. She ran because she understood that small towns depend on volunteers to operate at all and dedicated volunteers to run well. She didn’t decide to send supplies to Rungwe District in Tanzania for pats on the back or even thanks. Maggie saw a need and knew she could help.
“Had I really thought about it, I would have realized this project is too big,” she says, chuckling.
Kootenai snagged Maggie in 1984. She worked for the Burlington Northern Railroad. In 1979, the railroad had transferred her from Missoula to Sandpoint. She moved unhappily with her daughter, Johanna Gendel, but finally found Kootenai and bought the foreman’s house for the mill that once employed everyone in town.
“The biggest issue in town was dogs running loose,” Maggie says. “Someone told me you have to take your turn in a small town.”
So she did. She joined the City Council in 1986. Everything about Kootenai appealed to Maggie. Everyone was her neighbor. It didn’t take long to meet the 350 town residents.
In 1988, the council appointed Maggie mayor. It wasn’t an intimidating job. She still had time to lead her daughter’s Girl Scout troop and work for the railroad. The council met at City Hall, but Mayor Maggie’s office was in her home. Since Maggie left Burlington Northern and opened a child-care center in her home in 1997, she’s met with some city committees while she’s managed Play-Doh art and building block projects.
“She manages to juggle calls from constituents about dogs, building codes, etc., while giving amazingly loving care to the children,” Nancy says. “Her conference room has a long meeting table 3 feet high – the perfect height for a group of preschoolers.”
Johanna left for the University of Idaho in 2000 and returned home with Emmanuel Mwandosya. He was a Tanzanian studying in Moscow. Emmanuel told Maggie his mother, Lucy Mwandosya, worked with AIDS issues and had started a humanitarian organization to record the disease’s devastation.
“Sometimes things just touch your heart,” Maggie says.
She contacted Lucy by e-mail and learned that AIDS has hit the Tanzania’s border region with ferocity. More than 1 million children under age 15 in the country are missing one or both parents due to AIDS. More than 68,000 children are living with HIV and at least 200 babies infected with HIV are delivered every month in Tanzania. The Mbeya region where Lucy works is one of the hardest hit areas of Tanzania, ranking second.
The number of orphans is rapidly multiplying and few arrangements for care are available. Most children end up living with grandparents or leading their own child-run households. Lucy began her nonprofit humanitarian aid organization, Lucy’s Hope Center, to help orphans stay in school, ensure health care and support, introduce programs that might generate income and assess the magnitude of the disaster.
She established a day-care center and an orphan database that keeps track of nutritious meals and health care to orphans. The center distributes donated clothes, school supplies and food to orphans in the area.
“A lot of those kids have never had their own shoes,” Maggie says as she studies a Play-Doh bug one of her child-care kids created. “For a lot of them, both their parents have died.”
Maggie decided last fall to send all the supplies she could collect. She picked up children’s clothes at sales, thrift stores, even at a landfill table reserved for usable items not ready for the trash. Friends contributed toys and school supplies. Maggie washed anything that wasn’t new and discarded anything too worn. Her collection of boxes grew until she knew she’d need special shipping services to get it all to Tanzania.
A friend suggested a shipping container. Maggie found one leaving out of Seattle in October. It cost $1,800 to rent. Maggie saved her money.
The container is 20 feet long, 8½ feet deep and 8½ feet high. Maggie estimates her collection will fill half the container. She wants to send it full, so she’s hoping people in the region will help. Emmanuel has suggested donations of books for a library they’re trying to start, typewriters and ribbons, computers, light blankets, school supplies, toys and clothes.
The shipping company will pick up Maggie’s collection for Tanzania on Oct. 1.
She hasn’t pushed her cause much outside her family. That’s not her way, not even as mayor. Maybe that’s why her re-election is never in question.
“Whatever people send me, I’ll find someone to use,” Maggie says. “I haven’t regretted this at all, especially after I moved all the stuff I collected out of my daughter’s room.”