Utahn helps caregivers of orphans in Botswana

Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

It has been close to 40 years since St. Vincent de Paul parishioner Jacque Smithe spent several months serving in Morocco in the Peace Corps, but a recent experience brought those memories back so vividly it now seems like only yesterday. In October and November Smithe spent five weeks in Mochudi, Botswana, helping the Stepping Stones International program, founded by Utahn Lisa Jamu in 2006 to assist orphaned and vulnerable youth ages 12 to 25.

“My husband is from Malawi and many young children in his family have also been orphaned,” Jamu told the Intermountain Catholic of her reason for starting the organization. “A lot of young people of this age group are often forgotten. I felt when I started Stepping Stones that there was a need to work with an age group that is often forgotten.” 

Jamu’s mother, Sandy Petersen, is a friend of Smithe’s. As Petersen spoke about her daughter’s experiences, Smithe began to feel that the ministry was something she should participate in. A former social worker with 30 years of experience, Smithe provided training for newly graduated social workers in the program while in Botswana. 

‘I just thought it would be a good thing for me to do,” said Smithe, who now owns Magdalene Religious Goods in Salt Lake City. “It was an incredible experience and I’d love to go back and work a little bit more directly with the therapists. Lisa thought it would be good for them to have some support and for me to maybe staff some cases.” 

During her time in Botswana, Smithe gave lectures and workshops and instructed the Stepping Stones social workers on how to do assessments and also prevent burnout.

“It was such intense work that they were worried about being able to sustain that work in what they do,” she said.  

She also helped with a co-op for grandmothers that was starting up, contacting Christ the King Cathedral in Gaborone, Botswana and arranging to sell some items there. She visited with the Sisters of Calvary and taught some of the retired nuns how to make wire-wrapped rosaries to sell. Smithe brought back several products made by the co-op members — scapulars, rosaries, bags, baskets and jewelry — that she now has for sale at her Cathedral of the Madeleine store. 

“Without her we wouldn’t even have those items or those ideas to be able to then help the grandmothers make a sustainable living,” Jamu said. 

During her visit, Smithe met the bishop of Gaborone, Bishop Franklyn Atese Nabuasah. She also was introduced to Sister Tshepo, a Sister of Calvary, who works with incarcerated sex traffickers and also with victims. In addition, she was invited to a ceremony where three of the nuns took their final vows. 

“They just embraced me; they just were so open and so embracing and hospitable,” she said. “It was such an inspiration to see these nuns who work in such intense situations be so joyous and happy and full of life.” 

While in Botswana, Smithe saw many similarities between that country and Morocco. “It was such an intense personal experience for me because it was an opportunity for me to tie up some loose ends from Morocco that were difficult for me,” she said. “There were so many parallels between the two.”

Her most recent experience helped her reevaluate her own life and the role of materialism in it, she said. “What I took away is relationships are the utmost importance in Botswana — you don’t walk down the street without people saying hello. I want to take a look at my own materialism and focus on relationships.”

Jamu, her husband Styn and their four children recently returned to the United States and will be attending the Cathedral of the Madeleine. She will continue administering Stepping Stones remotely from Utah and will commute frequently to the facility in Mochudi. She is also working with the organization’s U.S. board of directors to expand its programs into Malawi.