Author Beth Rowles Scott Photo By Michael Moster
Helena Kaufman The Afro News Vancouver
In the midst of a book detailing the life journey of a Canadian woman from girlhood to unexpected gratification, lies a formula for happiness. It is nestled in the chapters of “Pinch Me, A Long Walk From Home”, a first volume of stories by author Beth Rowles Scott. Extraordinarily readable and engaging, the segments detail her life path from being a self described fat little girl on the Saskatchewan prairie to her move to maturity in British Columbia. Finally, there is an unplanned adventure that would prove to reinvigorate and redesign her own life, and that of thousands of others, through her work in Kenya.
“Like beads in a bowl,” as Beth characterizes her chapters, she gathered up a life story that informs and inspires. “Pinch Me” contrasts how she felt as a child and how she feels now. For a long time she felt she was that young fat girl, despite external growth and achievement. It could have slowed her down that self image. She could perhaps have limited herself by her environment and her body. Today in her daily life and throughout her book, Beth looks at all the blessings in her life and opportunities and thinks, “Pinch me, is it real?”
Stages
Satisfaction surrounds Beth as she looks back on an amazing life, but to the reader she represents hope. Following the formula she discovered for herself at a very young age, the reader is given privy to possibility. Any aspirations it seems can come true and pay off in current and ongoing achievement – even for late bloomers. For Beth, happiness is comprised of the life guiding elements of ‘Someone to Love, Something to Do, Something to Look Forward To.”
In bite sized chapters, the book presents the instances wherein Beth dealt with all that life brought her, difficult and delightful. Always, she returned to fulfilment through her self styled formula. Beth Rowles Scott started out in Saskatchewan in the 1930’. With her teacher’s certificate from the University of Saskatchewan, she taught in Big River and in Saskatoon. A move to British Columbia brought with it teaching and administrative positions in the Surrey school district. Eventually, she became the only female secondary principal in BC at the time. She continued her formal education and acquired a Bachelor of Arts degree and then a Bachelor of Education at the University of British Columbia. She followed this with a master’s degree and a doctorate in educational administration. As admirable as these building blocks were, Beth went on to build something momentous with them.
Splendour in the Senior Sun
It was in 1993, that Beth Rowles Scott and her husband George Scott decided that “They could do it!” Early into both their retirement and their marriage, the two lazed on a beach in Hawaii, sunning and reading. A book that captured both their imaginations was Robert Rodale’s, “Save Three Lives”. The decision came quickly to put a lifetime of learning and teaching to a new purpose, together.
What they did was to found ACCES. An acronym for The African Canadian Continuing Education Society, ACCES is a non-profit organization with charitable status. Its mission is to help young Africans obtain the skills and education needed to benefit themselves and their society. The direction to Kenya came via a contact in New Westminster, British Columbia. Beth and George were made aware of the need to source funds to be able to award scholarships for post secondary education. “We knew from our backgrounds that education can make a difference in any life – especially in helping people out of poverty,” says Beth.
Beth’s desire “to give hope, to give a chance to others” came from her own early life lessons. This new project which began on a kitchen table in 1993, called on Beth to apply all her best experiences of administration. Her belief in how important it is to encourage leadership, enhance education and strengthen community now led her from being a retired academic to a latter day activist in a far and foreign land. Looking forward to Kenya, Beth and George’s vision became the working motto for ACCES – “Kenyans Helping Kenyans.” Their philosophy about investing in people means that Africans are making the decisions relevant on a local level to the benefit of the immediate community and their students’ needs. ACCES strives to alleviate poverty in Africa through education. The funds and resources supporting Kakamega, Kenya, however, are applied and distributed completely by local people who decide their own priorities.
“Education comprises three of the 10 UN Millennium Goals,” says Beth. For Kenyans, ACCES offers a chance for a general basic education and for many of the scholarship recipients who seek them out – a choice of occupation and fields of study impossible to attain otherwise. To date, ACCES has assisted 1,200 graduates who continue to educate, support and contribute within their communities. In 2006, the Scotts were recognized as “Outstanding Canadians” by the Corporation of the City of White Rock, BC. Previously, in 1999, Beth had received the Lewis Perinbam Award in International Development, “in recognition of excellence and imaginative leadership in the field of international development.” Wherever Beth’s book Pinch Me is found, it offers inspiration to ordinary folks, seniors and starters of all ages who are encouraged to try extraordinary projects or relationship. It shows, and tells, that anyone “Can do it”.
Since its inauguration, ACCES has provided
• ten primary schools for over 1200 Kenyan children, including AIDS orphans, who could not otherwise afford to learn to read and write,
• secondary education for the graduates of these primary schools,
• post-secondary scholarships for more than1200 Kenyans to study in Kenya
• HIV/AIDS education for thousands of teachers and community members
• business training and micro-credit for hundreds of small-business entrepreneurs
• has received grants from CIDA over the last eleven years.
Tenets of ACCES
• 100% of donations for programs are used for these programs. Our low administrative costs are funded by designated donations.
• ACCES strives to help other people help themselves.
• ACCES will not seek to change or interfere with another culture
• ACCES programs provide equal opportunity to females and males.
Contact
ACCES
#402 – 411 Dunsmuir St.
Vancouver, BC V6B 1X4
(604) 688-4880
