The Executive Director of Agri-Culture and the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau returned this week from a trip to Armidale, Australia where he and his wife Laura attended the New England University graduation of Thelma Chibweza. Jess first met Thelma and her family while doing volunteer work in Zimbabwe in 1998. Jess made four other volunteer trips to Africa but it was on this first trip that he developed a relationship with the Chibweza family and he and Laura offered to help pay for their three children to go to boarding school.
Thelma was then accepted to the New England University in Australia and the Browns continued to pay for her education. This was quite a feat in that Thelma came from a very rural village without running water and electricity. Going to a first world university was a major adjustment for her. Thelma majored in the Social Sciences and her goal is to stay in Australia and help people in need.
See attached article from the New England University website: www.une.edu.au
