A month-long volunteer trip last summer prompted Alyssa and Alex Martin to help the world’s poor, even after they returned to Lincoln.

BY MATTHEW HANSEN | Lincoln Journal Star

The Nebraska teenager massaged the elderly Indian woman’s shoulders and back, trying to ease the pain of tuberculosis. 

Then they sat in silence, separated by language, age, culture and money, connected only by their interlocked hands.

The old woman they called Mary then took the Lincoln Southwest senior’s head in her hands.

She looked her straight in the eye and made the sign of the cross.

“I realized she was blessing me,”  Alyssa Martin said.  “I realized right then that maybe it doesn’t take a whole lot to make a difference.”

That experience and others during a month-long volunteer trip to India this summer prompted Martin and her younger sister Alex to continue helping the world’s poor even after they returned to Lincoln.

They helped convince the school’s National Honor Society to raise money for the most unique of senior gifts: A new school in Sierra Leone, a war-torn African nation where two out of every three people live in poverty.

The group’s goal is to raise $5,500 by the end of the year, enough money to build the school, and then rely on future Southwest senior classes to raise more money for things like teachers, books and upkeep.

“We were just thinking, ‘what a great gift,’” Martin said. “We can give children in another country an education.”

The sisters, who’s mother is Indian, decided to take the month-long journey to Calcutta, India, partly to learn about their heritage and partly to help others through a group run by the North American charity, “Free the Children.”

Alyssa volunteered in a center for the elderly. Alex worked with severely deformed children. Both centers were started by Mother Teresa. A little of her giving spirit rubbed off on the Martin sisters.

“It’s really easy to be removed (in Nebraska). Now we’ve seen the disparity between the United States and India and that inspired us,” Alyssa said.

After returning to Nebraska in August, the sisters started convincing friends and classmates that they should do something to help students in another country.

About 20 Southwest students in National Honor Society eventually pitched in, said Alyssa, who, along with Leena Pahdye, is the society’s co-president.

They have sought out corporate donations by walking into area businesses and telling them about the project.

Businesses like First National Bank, the Nebraska Heart Hospital and Williamson Honda have already contributed, she said.

At Southwest, they’ve made what Alyssa calls “shock statements” and placed them around the schools.

One such statement: Three billion people in the world live on less than $2 a day.

“That’s pretty shocking to me. I don’t think very many people realized that,” she said.

The students made $600 by holding a fund-raising contest in which the winning fourth period class got a free in-school pizza party.

The largest fund-raiser, a senior night, will likely take place in May. The group hopes to raise thousands by selling raffle tickets and charging admission to the dance.

The goal, which at one point seemed impossible, is now within reach, says Karen Ward, Southwest High’s National Honor Society sponsor.

“It’s such an ambitious group,” she says. “If there’s any class that can pull this off, this is the class that will.”

The $5,500 the group hopes to raise will go to a school building program partly administered by “Free the Children.”

The long-term goal is to turn the senior gift into an annual charity events that benefits the students of Sierra Leone, Alyssa said.

“If you think about it, the only way to get out of poverty is to get education,” she said. “It seems like this is the sort of thing Lincoln should be doing.”

For more info

Contact Karen Ward at Lincoln Southwest High School at 436-1306

Reach Matthew Hansen at 473-7245 or mhansen@journalstar.com.