Journey Of Compassion

Roswitha Browne has three homes - Switzerland, the United States and now Tanzania, where she is returning for a third time to help orphaned children.

Born in Switzerland, Browne came to Sebring 27 years ago. Prior to coming to Highlands County, she worked in two Miami hospitals for 19 years.

Browne packed her things recently at her Sebring home in preparation for her latest travel adventure.

Browne described the itinerary, with multiple airline flights, as "grueling."

Orlando to Detroit, Amsterdam to Switzerland to see her family and then back to Amsterdam. Then to Nairobi with a final flight to Kilimanjaro.

Since her first trip to Tanzania last year for a safari and her return for a month in December, Browne has been compelled to return again.

"An amazing force has been pulling at my heartstrings so strongly that I will soon be returning to East Africa to visit 'my kids' and to try to bring hope to a small community of children, the Orphanage of Good Hope in the town of Arusha," she said.

These orphans are "discarded" and destitute, she said. Most are the innocent victims of the HIV-AIDS epidemic that has swept across the continent, killing hundreds of thousands of parents and other relatives.

Ali and his mother Asha started the orphanage in 2005 with one discarded child, Raya, Brown said. Now they have 13 children between the ages of 4 and 8.

Browne helped the children study and read to them and tucked them in at night, two per single bed with no mosquito netting. Malaria is the No. 1 killer of children in Tanzania.

For her trip, Browne is packing clothes, games, toys, chocolates and gum for the children. She plans to purchase necessities for the children when she arrives in Tanzania

"They love gum and sweets," she noted.

Tanzania is a politically stable nation where Browne feels safe traveling alone.

The men have more than one wife, whatever they can afford, she said.

"The women have to rear the kids, build the huts, milk the cows and the children go out with the cattle. They guard the cattle during the day," Browne said. "That's why a lot of kids can't go to school. The men are just the warriors, but there's no war."

The national language is Swahili, but most Tanzanians also learn English.

"You can communicate with just about anybody," she said. "There are some Masais who don't communicate, but that's O.K."

Masai are East African nomadic people who speak Maa, an Eastern Nilotic language. Cattle are the center of Masai life.

A stop in a rundown drinking spot brought an encounter with a Masai who made Browne an offer she most definitely refused.

"One wanted to buy me for 500 cows," Browne said with a chuckle.

She told her companion, who interpreted with the Masai for her, that he would be a rich man if she accepted the offer.

"Normally it's anywhere between two to four or five cows, but 500!" she said. "I guess maybe the blonde ... ."

A world map in Browne's in-home skin care shop is filled with push pins showing the places she has traveled.

"I hope to go to Australia, that's the one continent I haven't been to," she said.

For more information on how to help the children in Tanzania, contact Browne at 385-2178. Donations are tax deductible if checks are made out to "To Make It Count, Inc.," a chartered 501 (C) 3 foundation in Sebring, according to Browne.