Read letters from Kara VanderKamp
September 6, 2007
January 22, 2007
May 9, 2006
April 19, 2006
March 6, 2006
January 31, 2006
Kara VanderKamp
Email: Kara VanderKamp
Kara ended her term of service in December 2007. She is available to speak as her schedule permits. Email her to extend an invitation to speak with your congregation or organization.
Kara VanderKamp was appointed in January 2005 to serve as an educational consultant with the Evangelical Church of Niger (EERN). Besides doing teacher training and curriculum development, Kara describes herself as the “point person” for communication between EERN’s partners, which are numerous and varied, including Reformed denominations in the United States and Germany and other international agencies.
Niger is land-locked country immediately to the north of Nigeria. The size of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona combined, its population is 11 million. About 80 percent of the country lies in the Sahara Desert. According to U.N. statistics, Niger is the second poorest country in the world. The medium income is less than $200 per year. Life expectancy for men and women is 41 years, and one of three children die before they reach the age of 5. About 80 percent of the country is Muslim and about half of one percent is Christian.
Niger has the lowest percentage of literacy of any country in the world. Public education is minimal. The EERN has responded to this situation by establishing schools. Historically, the PC(USA) is very much within the mainstream of Reformed practice, which is to emphasize the importance of education.
This isn’t Kara’s first experience doing educational ministry in Africa. From 1997 to 1999 she was sent by the Reformed Church in America to serve as a teacher in Kenya. Immediately prior to her appointment to Niger, Kara was pursuing her master’s degree at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, where she was a research intern with the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching. She was a fourth-grade teacher at Circle-Rock Preparatory School Chicago, Illinois, from 1999-2003 and in 1996-1997 she was a facilitator for Habitat for Humanity in Chicago.
She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and a master’s in international educational development from Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York, New York. She is a member of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, which is in the Presbyterian Church in America.
Birthday - October 29
