OCEANSIDE –
When Marie Wrinn was 5, she wanted to be a missionary and help the people of South Africa.
Next month, the 34-year-old Oceanside resident will fulfill her dream and travel to the South African city of Bloemfontein.
Wrinn recently founded No Child Dies Alone, an organization that will help build homes for terminally ill children in South Africa. She got the idea after meeting with Joan Marston from the St. Nicholas Children's Hospice and Zo Finca from the Msunduzi Hospice Association, both in South Africa.
Wrinn, a hospice nurse, began working for Vitas Hospice in San Diego last year. Vitas is a sister hospice to the ones in South Africa.
Marston and Finca came to San Diego to share their story about Sunflower House, a home for terminally ill children in South Africa. Wrinn was shocked when she saw the presentation .
“Wow, that's how (bad) hospice is in other parts of the world,” she said. “It blew me away.”
Wrinn wanted to find a way to help Sunflower House. In the summer, she participated in a community leadership project, and in October she had a garage sale to benefit the South African hospice. She raised $321 at the garage sale, but decided she needed to do more.
“This vision is so big for the world; it required more than just a garage sale,” Wrinn said.
She used the money she raised to start her organization, with the goal of building more Sunflower Houses in South Africa and eventually around the world.
“There's something about children, providing a safe place for them to be without having to worry about dying,” Wrinn said.
She said she will meet with Marston during her weeklong trip to South Africa and develop a plan for building another shelter. She has contacted other children's organizations and orphanages to learn how they build their structures and run their programs so she can use their ideas to fit the needs of South African children.
“I have an example, someone to follow,” Wrinn said.
She said Sunflower House serves about 50 children a month. Some are orphans who live at the facility.
From the outside, Sunflower House looks like a day-care center with a playground and garden. But the walls are covered with paintings of sunflowers, and every time a child dies, his or her name is inscribed in the center of a sunflower.
“Having the flowers is really unique,” Wrinn said.
The house has 15 beds for children who are dying or in severe pain. One special room has a bed, a cot and a rocking chair for family members to be near a dying child.
“The only difference you can make when someone is dying is having someone there,” Wrinn said.
The goal of No Child Dies Alone is to raise money to build more hospice facilities. Wrinn said that once the structures are built, day-to-day operations will be turned over to other organizations similar to the ones Marston and Finca work for.
Wrinn said she set a goal for 2008 to have the organization officially running so that by 2009 it can break ground on its first structure.
Marston told Wrinn they find many children lying on the streets, under newspapers, dying.
By building these structures, Wrinn hopes to give these children one last chance to be a child.
“We're not trying to change life, but make it more comfortable,” she said.
Wrinn said she is excited about the opportunity but nervous about the adventure. She said she spends every free moment she has on the project.
“This is a very tangible way of providing love,” she said.
Stephanie K. Parry: (760) 752-6750; stephanie.parry@tlnews.net
