People sometimes ask me, as a journalist, who’s the most amazing person you’ve ever interviewed, or what’s the most fascinating place you’ve ever been?
I have several in mind, but Sue van Schreven, an ordinary mum from Queenstown is near the top of my list.
When Sue went to Romania 23 years ago she was struck by how many kids were still ending up abandoned in hospitals because of the extremes of poverty that prevailed in that country.
“The doors to foreign adoption had pretty much closed by the time I got there”, says Sue, “so I decided I need to get proactive. These kids moved me so much I knew I had to start building homes for them right in the country where they lived.”
So began a labour of love, which culminated in the purchase of a house in the Romanian town of Targu Mures, a delightful home they now call Casa Kiwi.
This orphanage echoes with the delighted shouts of kids who have been rescued from near certain death or life-long mental illness, by the inventiveness of an ordinary Kiwi mum.
What interested me more was the fact that part of Sue’s impetus for starting Casa Kiwi, and now other orphanages in many needy countries was the death of her brother Pete – who took his own life.
“I knew I had to do something for Pete,” says Sue, “to help give his life some meaning because none of us knew that he was so desperately unhappy.”
Sue says Pete’s memory will be honoured by even the recovery of one otherwise forgotten Romanian child; it occurred to me that Pete now has a very fitting memorial.
Her charity, Orphans Aid International, celebrated 20 years in July and is now working in, or helping orphans from, eight countries, from Eastern Europe to India, Africa and the Middle East.
I went on four filming trips with Sue to Romania, and the kids there changed my life.
What did I learn from Sue? An ordinary person who is determined enough to leave a legacy can change the world.