2021 Hometown Heroes

2021 Hometown HEROES Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS May 27, 2021 Page 27 CONTINUED u Besides filing paperwork, O’Donohue decided she needed to make more frequent visits to Africa. By restructuring her business in Lincoln, she was able to go to Africa a couple times a year for four to six weeks. Later these trips would extend to longer periods of time. The school that started in the shade of a tree, then one room, under O’Donohue grew and housed 600 children. Because of the ministry literally thousands of children can now read. Many of those students have gone on to colleges, some gaining professional degrees in health and economics to bring back to help their village. Additionally, O’Donohue wanted to do projects that would improve the life of the villagers and help them become more self- sufficient. She got local people involved in funding some of these projects. A community well was funded by the Lincoln Rotary Club. This well would provide the village with clean water and keep villagers from having to travel so far to haul water. Other local people made short term trips with O’Donohue to view and invest their time and labor in work going on in the African village. Besides the Boatmans, local community members who made trips to Pokot included Joe and Sue Diers, Jim Youngquist, and a number of other locals over the years. During one particular ‘getting started’ essentials collection, people from the Lincoln area collected and helped load a shipping container with resources - a tractor, bicycles, a wide variety of clothing, grains and other long-storage foods, vitamins and basic medical supplies, books, writing implements, slate boards, and seeds for the first community garden. Dr. Boatman said the loading of this shipping container became a major project for people in the Lincoln area. They made sure the container was filled from the ceiling to the doors with the items being sent to Tapadany. O’Donohue also had a famine intervention ministry in Tapadany. The Harvest of Talents at Lincoln Christian Church played a role in providing famine relief for the village. In the 2018 drought, a truck showed up with food from the IDES organization. This truckload of food was funded by the Harvest of Talents at Lincoln Christian Church. Basic medical care has been established through the COPE ministry. In recent years, O’Donohue had Dr. Steve Kotteman travel to Pokot to expand that care to villagers. This service would keep them from having to travel so far for more specialized needs.