Hill volunteer is an angel of mercy for orphans in Guyana

Posted 2/24/16

Hill area Good Samaritan Rebecca Anwar is seen working with one of the children at Hope Children’s House in Guayana.[/caption] by Barbara Sherf While many snowbirds are packing for Florida and …

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Hill volunteer is an angel of mercy for orphans in Guyana

Posted
Hill area Good Samaritan Rebecca Anwar is seen working with one of the children at Hope Children’s House in Guayana. Hill area Good Samaritan Rebecca Anwar is seen working with one of the children at Hope Children’s House in Guayana.[/caption]

by Barbara Sherf

While many snowbirds are packing for Florida and relaxing in the sun, one 72-year-old Chestnut Hill area woman is making her 18th annual trek to volunteer at an orphanage in Guyana, South America.

Rebecca Anwar never thought when she was studying at the London School of Economics and Political Science that it would lead to this annual labor of love. But it was a friend she made there who led her to the volunteer work that’s become a passion.

After returning to the U.S., Anwar kept in touch with one of her London School classmates who was a Sister of Mercy.

“We used to hang out in the cafeteria and formed a lifelong friendship,” she said.

Fast forward to 1998, and her friend contacted her.

“Sister Noel had the opportunity to visit Israel but was concerned about leaving the orphanage for a month, and I jumped in during the summer of 1998 to help out.” Aawar said. “ I thought it would be an adventurous one-time trip, but I was hooked on those boys and they on me.”

Anwar, who met and 10 weeks later married a Pakistani man while both were doing graduate work at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, believes in the motto “Carpe diem,” Latin for “Seize the day.”

“When you are presented with an opportunity, you either take it or don’t. I generally take it,” said Anwar.

A longtime member of the faculty of the former Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel University College of Medicine), Anwar made the decision to spend her winters in Guyana when her husband, a professional engineer, died suddenly seven years ago. Now she teaches the children at Hope Children’s Home in Guyana how to set up bank accounts, learn the alphabet and computers and how to play musical instruments. A serious musician herself, Anwar uses mostly small wooden recorders to teach the children how to read music.

“I think music meets the soul somehow, and even if they have difficulty learning to read music, we give them some role to play in part of our small orchestra,” she said.

Her efforts don’t stop when she returns home. She has enlisted seniors from the Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment to make cloth cases for the recorders that the children cherish. A charter member of the Rotary Club of Chestnut Hill since 1995, she has used Rotary contacts both locally and in Guyana to fund a host of projects. Last year she was able to raise money for a new kitchen stove for the orphanage and has her sights on a washer and dryer this year.

“All of the bedding and clothing is pretty much washed by hand –it’s very labor-intensive and not as sanitary as a modern machine,” she said. “People talk about what I have been able to give to the orphanage, but really the staff and children have given me so much more in terms of seeing past material objects and receiving their unconditional love, making me laugh, and giving me a sense of accomplishment that can’t be measured in dollars and cents.”

Barbara Sherf is a freelance writer and personal historian. She can be reached at 215-990-9317 or CaptureLifeStories@gmail.com.

* This article is reprinted, with permission, from Milestones, a monthly publication of the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging.

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