Celebrating Two Great Expat Volunteers
Anne Ponti-Riggins & Pamela Musselman
One of the important themes in My-Linh Kunst's book (Beyond Borders) featured on Expat Women this month, is that of expat volunteerism.
We would like to explore this theme further and invite any of you with unique and inspiring stories of expat volunteerism to email us some details here, for us to potentially collate into a future Expat Women feature on this topic.
In the meantime, My-Linh has kindly granted us permission to republish the following two inspiring stories of women whose volunteer efforts abroad exemplify some of our incredible, selfless, unsung expat heroines abroad.
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Anne Ponti-Riggins
A successful working artist, with paintings in private collections, Anne Ponti-Riggins is also known for her groundbreaking work in the care of Alzheimer's patients in Italy, where she has lived for 50 years, since marrying her Italian politician husband.
She says, "I came to Rome to study at the Academy of Fine Arts for a year and stayed for a lifetime. "
Her art career has seen many phases, from printmaking and graphics, to etchings and aquatints, to large canvases in oil, which are her present specialty.
In addition to producing works of art, Anne began volunteer work while her three sons were growing up in Rome and attending traditional Italian schools. Working with other parents, she organized programs at the schools to coach soccer teams and to provide field trips, until, finally, one evening in her dining room, a "constitution" for an Italian Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) was signed by a headmaster, a faculty representative and an American mother. Anne continued to nourish the fledgling organization until it grew to become a national institution.
When her sons finished school, Anne turned her volunteer efforts to health-related fields, advocating for a variety of causes until she stumbled upon Alzheimer's disease and realized that in Italy there was nothing to help people cope with this "plague. "
An ironic footnote to the latter is that it was only two years later that her own husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. During this difficult time, with the aid of generous, faithful friends, and with help from their three sons, she managed to struggle through the next few years.
Anne had to find gainful employment, even while she spent "the 36-hour day" caring for her increasingly debilitated husband. After his death, she continued her fight to have Alzheimer officially recognized as a disease and thereby incorporated into Italy's National Health Service. But still there was no support, no day care centers, no assistance for families at all. Anne persevered; she helped a voluntary organization plan the first Alzheimer conference in Italy, and from there, painfully slowly, progress began.
With Anne's help, support groups for families were organized, as well as psychological and legal counseling for them, support for research programs, geriatric and neurological assistance for patients, occupational therapies were begun to help patients reinforce their residual capacities thus improving their quality of life.
Anne herself translated the American-written material to inform and train families, volunteers, care-givers, health professionals, and social workers. These efforts eventually turned into a network throughout Italy of 50 daycare centers where Alzheimer patients can find comfort and courage and care through physical and creative activities, mental exercises, medical supervision, art and music therapies prolonging and fulfilling their "good" years.
And now, thanks to the hard work and commitment of an American volunteer residing in Rome, Italy is exporting its training programs to other countries. This volunteer, Anne Ponti-Riggins, has single-handedly made a difference not only to Italy, but to Alzheimer sufferers throughout the world.
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Pamela Musselman
Pamela Musselman, a registered nurse by profession, with a specialty in Emergency Medicine, sold the business she had founded, a nurses' registry to provide temporary staff to emergency departments in Bay Area hospitals, packed up her children, and moved to Budapest to join her husband in 1992.
A typical "trailing spouse," she learned early into "this adventure" that international women's volunteer organizations are an important way to understand and appreciate a country. Pamela chose not to pursue her nursing career overseas, because of language barriers, and instead volunteered for projects connected to the countries where she lived. She has served on the boards of the International Women's Club Foundation of Budapest, the American Women's Association of Vienna, and the American Women's Club of The Hague, where she now lives.
After her youngest child was born in Budapest, Pamela gave up the life of a trailing spouse and became an active volunteer in philanthropic fundraising, continuing this endeavor in moves to Brazil and Austria, and now in the Netherlands, where she has devoted her philanthropic skills to the American Women's Club of The Hague's Pink Gala, so named because this annual event raises funds for breast cancer research, education, and advocacy.
After serving as a member of the planning committee, Pamela volunteered to be co-chair of the Pink Gala event, and it is through her hard work, creativity, and vision that the venue became more impressive, the number of participants grew larger, and Dutch corporate sponsorship expanded.
In fact, the most recent event raised over €250,000, and the Pink Gala has become embedded into the Hague's cultural calendar, all as the result of the dedicated efforts of an expat committed to making a difference.
My-Linh, thank you very much for allowing us to republish these stories. We wish you all the very best with ongoing sales of Beyond Borders.
Anne and Pamela, we applaud your dedication and we wish you both all the very best for the future!
Reminder: If you have a unique and inspiring story of expat volunteerism to share (about yourself or about someone else), please write to us here.
September 2010
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