Mark Doran wanted to see the world, but he didn’t want to do it via the military, he says. So Doran packed up his bags and joined the Peace Corps.
He found himself in Moldova, a republic of the former Soviet Union, and he quickly realized he was going to do more than see the world – he was going to help educate it.
“I had people knocking on my door around the clock asking me to teach their children English,” Doran says.
Doran took note of their requests and did just that, organizing a school with a library that offers English classes to Moldova citizens of all ages.
Doran’s school is located in the city of Cahul, the fifth largest city in the country of Moldova, which is situated between Romania and Ukraine, north of the Black Sea.
First, he set up an English Resource Center. Then, he began searching for people to teach night school, and finally, he began building a library.
Doran even organized Moldova’s first fund-raiser to raise scholarship money for young adults planning to attend college.
The fund-raiser featured a wine contest, which was popular in this country smaller than West Virginia and chock-full of rolling hills and hundreds of vineyards, he says.
Doran and three Moldova citizens who helped start the organization named it Help In Kind, which now includes more than 20 teachers.
After Doran helped set up the organization’s basic infrastructure, the group became self-sufficient and is keeping the school running strong, he says.
“They made me a little present and said: Go, ahead, we’re going to take care of it now,” Doran says.
But Doran couldn’t let it go.
He has been back to Lake Highlands for two years, but he is still collecting English literature for Moldova.
In Moldova’s capital city, one bookstore sells a few books written in English, but they’re extremely expensive – some costing an entire month’s wages, he says.
The books here in the states aren’t expensive, but it costs $1 per pound to send books to Moldova. Doran already has gathered 600 pounds of books, he says, but he needs help with the shipping costs.
Doran already has received donations from RE/MAX Associates and the Alexander School.
Doran says it’s vital the students have English literature accessible to them.
In an agricultural country where heat and electricity is rationed by the government, learning English is a top priority among inhabitants, he says.
“Over the long-term, English will be beneficial for business purposes,” says Doran, who graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a bachelor’s degree in political science.
As for Doran, soon he’ll be heading for Japan to teach more English before applying to enter a master’s degree program in anthropology. But he won’t be forgetting his school and library in Moldova.
“These people became really good friends,” Doran says. “They will give you the shirt off of your back.”
To help collect books for Moldova and to help with shipping costs, call Doran at 341-7249.
