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Lofty Thought of the Day
- Category: Articles
(Photo Credit: Western Michigan University) NewYorkTimes.com By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF - November 14, 2009 Any time anyone tells you that a dream is impossible, any time you’re discouraged by impossible challenges, just mutter this mantra: TERERAI TRENT
Tererai Trent in front of the hut in Zimbabwe where she grew up. (Courtesy of Heifer International)
Of all the people earning university degrees this year, perhaps the most remarkable story belongs to Tererai (pronounced TEH-reh-rye), a middle-aged woman who is one of my heroes. She is celebrating a personal triumph, but she’s also a monument to the aid organizations and individuals who helped her. When you hear that foreign-aid groups just squander money or build dependency, remember that by all odds Tererai should be an illiterate, battered cattle-herd in Zimbabwe and instead — ah, but I’m getting ahead of my story.
Jo Luck, center, of Heifer International in her first meeting with Tererai Trent, who is to her right.
Tererai was born in a village in rural Zimbabwe, probably sometime in 1965, and attended elementary school for less than one year. Her father married her off when she was about 11 to a man who beat her regularly. She seemed destined to be one more squandered African asset.
Jo Luck (CEO of Heifer International), Oprah Winfrey, and Tererai Trent
A dozen years passed. Jo Luck, the head of an aid group called Heifer International, passed through the village and told the women there that they should stand up, nurture dreams, change their lives.
Inspired, Tererai scribbled down four absurd goals based on accomplishments she had vaguely heard of among famous Africans. She wrote that she wanted to study abroad, and to earn a B.A., a master’s and a doctorate.
Tererai began to work for Heifer and several Christian organizations as a community organizer. She used the income to take correspondence courses, while saving every penny she could...MORE...
