Bankers make kits for kids in Zambia

AMERICAN FORK — Attendees of the annual convention of the Utah Bankers Association spent a lot of time working on an issue that has nothing to do with checking accounts or interest rates for home loans.

Rose Anne Gunther, a 13-year volunteer at Mothers Without Borders, a nonprofit charity organization, went to the convention with her banker husband and put more than 200 bankers to work creating hygiene kits for African orphans.

Gunther, with about $5,000 that was raised for the project, bought hand towels, toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, soap and combs, then supervised as the bankers, along with other partners and children, made roughly 2,200 hygiene kits.

"The need is so great, and I thought bankers and family members could provide a gift from the heart," Gunther said.

The hygiene kits assembled by the convention participants will be part of a 20-ton shipment that will be shipped this year at no cost by Project Concern to help children in Zambia. The high number of AIDS-related deaths has left many children in Africa without parents.

The service project is one of a handful that Kathy Headlee, founder and CEO of Mothers Without Borders, is organizing to help the orphaned children, whom she calls "the world's most vulnerable population."

"We are a child-centered organization that approaches the needs of orphaned and vulnerable children in a holistic manner," Headlee said. "We develop partnerships with local organizations to find long-term, sustainable solutions to help end the suffering and uncertainty of these often forgotten children."

Headlee worked closely with orphaned and vulnerable children for more than ten years before Mothers Without Borders was officially formed in 2000.

In 1996, Headlee, a mother of five children, was so shocked by the lack of support and nourishment she witnessed in a Romanian orphanage that she adopted one of the orphans.

Since then, she has worked with concerned people around the world to form the growing nonprofit organization.

"The need is enormous," Headlee said.

Gunther was equally pleased with the help from the convention, and believes she has started a new tradition with the Utah Bankers Association.

"The people who participated were very enthusiastic about the project," Gunther said. "(They) vowed to keep it as a part of the agenda in future years."

More information can be found at www.motherswithoutborders.org.

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