Donna Ketchum was born in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, on May 12, 1959. She resided at 461 Springville Avenue, in a section of Amherst, Erie County, NY, called Eggertsville. Donna�s early education was in the Amherst school system and was a 1977 graduate of Amherst Central High School. Continuing her education she earned her degree in journalism at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
After graduation, Donna moved to New York City and worked in publishing and public relations. Then in 1986, she moved back to her hometown and helped her father, after his second wife died. Donna became a dedicated worker for the Assemblies of God Church in Tonawanda, Erie County, NY. But with full time jobs hard to come by in her field of expertise, it was necessary to take a position as Executive Secretary to the Vice President at Buffalo General Hospital. Soon after she opened �Just a Reminder� gift shop in the Village of Williamsville, Erie County, NY. While operating her business, she traveled frequently, volunteering in poor communities in Siberia, Russia; Cairo, Egypt; Mexico City, Mexico and Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. She also became involved in community projects in the inner city of Buffalo.
Donna, who developed a fascination with maps and globes as a child, sold her business in 1997 to become involved full-time in international missions. She began to work as mission�s coordinator for an organization that leads teams from all over the U.S. into Cairo, Egypt and Mexico City, Mexico.
In January 1999, Donna was given an invitation to the Lillian Trasher Orphanage, which takes six hours by train ride from Cairo to the orphanage located in Asyut, (pronounced Ah-soot) Egypt. It was established by an American woman named Lillian Trasher in 1911. While living in Egypt, Trasher heard the cry of a terminally ill mother. The mother died, leaving a three-month-old girl. With no one available to care for the child, Trasher took her home. Five years later, she was caring for 50 children. Today the organization sits on a 13-acre campus and houses 650 orphans, widows and blind women.
After returning from her trip to Egypt, Donna decided to volunteer for a two-year stint at the Lillian Trasher Orphanage, beginning on October 15, 1999. She knew that she would be bidding farewell to the luxuries like gourmet coffee shops, manicures and dry cleaning, but, as she said, �It�s very �villagey�, and it is definitely a very classic kind of village where it is necessary to drive through the desert to get there, with few paved streets.� She would dress modestly, as Egyptian women do. �Muslims are covered, Egyptian Christians dress modestly, wear cotton, not much polyester.�
Non-American conveniences were the hardest part, even in the grocery stores you don�t find the little things, like spices or mixes, from food to personal items. They�re difficult to come by. To combat this, she stashed everything she would need, such as deodorant and toiletries, and chocolate of course. Everyone craves American chocolate over there.
Egypt has two seasons, summer and winter, it can get up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, but it�s a dry heat, 90s and 100s usually.
The orphanage is nestled behind brick walls and inside luxurious gardens grow. Donna said, �It�s very beautiful with lots� of grass and gardens growing, and if I was an orphan, it would be a wonderful place to be.� There is also a cow farm inside the walls, used to feed the orphans. It takes three cows a day if they�re having beef. The cost to run the orphanage is about $1000.00 per day.
Boys are separated from the girls. All children are engaged in regular activities ranging from recreation, education and chores. At any given time you can see children sweeping the grounds or older girls sewing for the younger kids.
Many villagers send their children to the orphanage to attend school. Every morning there is a neat, long procession of children. �It is so cute,� Donna said. �There is a boy beating on a drum and they all march into school. For them it�s something fun to do.�
The orphanage takes in children as early as three-days up until the age of 18. Many come back to work there. In fact, the director and his wife were orphans who grew up there, met and fell in love.
Donna�s position includes setting up and running a vocational program to teach office and computer skills to teens; designing a curriculum to train Egyptians to teach these skills to children in their own language; teach English and promoting the orphanage within its own country for financial sponsorship.
�In a country where adoption is stifled by government, the staff at the orphanage does their very best to supply everything necessary to train up the hundreds of children that depend on them,� she said.
Her residence is in Maadi, outside of Cairo, although she stays at the orphanage for periods of time. �Maadi is a place where international people tend to conjugate,� she said. �It�s a melting pot of many nationalities.� Cairo is described as a very hectic, busy city, where you see millions of cars and people walking all over the place. It has an old Cairo and a new Cairo. The Nile River (the longest in the world) runs right through the city and you can take a long or short boat ride on.
Donna rarely gets homesick. �The people that she knows there are like a family,� she said, �there are times when she came back to the USA, she would miss them.�
Donna found Egyptians to be warm, affectionate and friendly. �Men greet other men with kisses on the cheek,� she said. �You frequently see two men holding hands, embracing and talking, because they are good friends.� Women are expected to be home in the evenings, according to Donna. �There are many clubs for men to meet and socialize, but you don�t find women doing that,� she continued. Relationships between men and women however, take total precedence over �time is money� type thinking.
Egyptians tend to be late, if they�re supposed to meet you at 8:00 p.m., but see a friend on the way, they�ll stop and talk, not worrying about being late. That�s why when you make plans, you always ask, American time or Egyptian time?