November 26, 2012
For Elinor Takenaga ’90SVC, the Vincentian values are more
than just guidelines – they’re a serious call to serve and a daily
reminder to help those who are less fortunate. And since her
graduation from St. John’s University, Takenaga has made those
values an essential part of her life.
“Helping others has always been important to me,” explained
Takenaga, who currently works as a Librarian at Oak Knoll School of
the Holy Child in Summit, NJ. “In fact, Oak Knoll’s emphasis on
service was one of the major reasons that I was attracted to work
here. Much like St. John’s, it stresses the importance of putting
your faith into action.”
Notably, Oak Knoll offers an annual service trip to the Dominican
Republic, a nation that is still struggling in the aftermath of the
catastrophic earthquake that struck neighboring Haiti in 2010.
Takenaga, whose mother is from the Dominican Republic – jumped on
the opportunity to attend last year’s trip.
“The program took about 20 students, all of whom were 13 or 14
year-old girls, and allowed them to see poverty firsthand,”
Takenaga said. “We assisted a community of underserved Haitians
living in the Dominican Republic and provided them with basic
literacy training, the tools they need to help them better their
lives.”
As Takenaga explained, Haitians who live in the Dominican Republic
are often treated very poorly and considered as cheap labor by the
locals. In many cases, these Haitians live in a situation of abject
poverty, one that Takenaga and her students found heartbreaking to
see.
“These migrant Haitian workers have no medical facilities, can’t
gain citizenship, can’t work legally and cannot get married,”
Takenaga said. “Their children are totally illiterate – they can’t
even sign their name – and HIV is rampant. It’s an extremely
difficult and sad situation.”
Takenaga and the Oak Knoll students read to the children, helped
them learn to write their own names and even painted the children’s
school building.
“They don’t have running water,” Takenaga said. “Many of them live
in a hut, where you have a kitchen in one corner, and you go to the
bathroom in the other. That quality of life would probably turn
most of us into rabid animals, but these people are so loving and
simply are in need of someone to listen to them, talk with them,
pray with them and laugh with them.”
Not surprisingly, the trip had a major impact on the students who
attended. Takenaga recalled that there were tears on a daily basis
as the young ladies tried to reconcile how such suffering could
exist in the world.
“These students are privileged enough to go to private school, so
trips like ours to the Dominican Republic raise serious questions,
like , ‘How could God let this happen?’ and, ‘What is our place in
the world?’ But at the same time, the trip provided a type of
growth that you can’t get anywhere else, allowing you to see life
through another lens and inspiring us to give back.”
Ultimately, Takenaga hopes that the trip reinforced a sense of
service in the students and helped them understand the true meaning
of the Vincentian values.
“For these young girls, it’s just like when I went to St. John’s,”
she noted. “You’re getting this fabulous education, but you must
take these tools and use them to make a difference in the world.
And it can be in many different ways: government, medicine,
service, etc. And though it may not be in the Dominican Republic,
I’m positive that through our education, we will be able to
significantly give back.”