Breaking down class division

A foster mother to troubled babies teaches Harvard a thing or two

By Johnny Diaz, Globe Staff, 5/19/2002

A crescendo of cries rises from a carpeted hallway at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Charity Bell is in the building.

It's not Bell crying, but the 3-month-old girl she is caressing in her calming arms.

''We finished the final, honey. We have one more to go,'' Bell whispers in an endearing ga-ga voice.

The baby hushes.

Bell, whose dress wears spots of spilled soy formula, is a foster mom to the infant, who was born with methadone addiction.

For the past two years, Bell has juggled two roles, as a foster parent to drug-addled babies and as a Harvard graduate student. Sometimes, those roles overlap. She brings the babies to the home of the privileged and achievement-minded because she has to.

Disclipined and dedicated, Bell coddles her foster child in her Harvard classes with one hand and jots notes on public policy and administration with another.

''My reason for coming to school,'' Bell says, ''is literally in front of me.''

The sight of Bell with a drug-addicted baby in tow has proven to be another education to some students and staffers. No class divisions here - some classmates swarm the child - and some regularly pitch in to help when Bell tackles an exam or carries a heavy class load.

Charity Bell, they say, lives up to her name.

''She has been an inspiration for us to go and do community service,'' says classmate Elizabeth Wilmott, who has watched over Bell's foster infant while she attends class. ''She has shown us that during our time here, we don't have to think about only ourselves and our classes.''

Professors, who flock around the baby after class, say Bell is public policy theory in action.

''Charity is a living case study,'' says David King, one of Bell's professors, ''and brings into the classroom issues ...about parenting, drug abuse, and a lot of the social problems that work together to put an innocent child in this situation. She does it without saying a word about the child.

''The baby isn't disruptive. She is instructive. Charity is living what she believes.''

Bell, 28, of Brookline, has followed that mantra from her teen years in Ledyard, Conn., where she began honing her mezzo soprano pipes for a future in operatic singing. She moved to Boston after graduation, riding on a full scholarship to attend the New England Conservatory. But singing wasn't enough. After two years in the Peace Corps in Guinea, she wanted to keep cultivating another love: helping others.

''It's a circle. If you give to those who need help, then they will eventually give back to you,'' says Bell, whose late mother named her Charity because ''it sounded nice.'' (She has a sister Faith).

While volunteering with children at the New England Medical Center two years ago, she encountered a little girl in hospital gown in need of foster care and with no where to go. The sight inspired Bell to become a foster parent and to study public policy in hopes of one day becoming a policy maker in the state's child welfare system.

''It seemed ridiculous that these needs were going unanswered in a city that is so able and so rich,'' she says. ''These are tiny little people trying to grow. Everyone's goal should be to make the world a little bit better.''

In the past two years, she has cared for 37 children. Calls come at a moment's notice in the middle of the night from social workers scrambling to find quick temporary homes for newborns while their parents check into rehab. Some infants stay just a night. Others a weekend. Her longest little guest remained three months.

''The kids I have seen in her care have really thrived,'' says Joy Cochran, family resource coordinator for the Boston region of the Department of Social Services. ''They have gained weight, they have developed. You can see the difference when they are placed with her.''

The baby Bell has been caring for and carrying to school lately has been snuggled in her lap for most of the past six weeks. The two ride Bus 66 to Harvard from Brookline and sit together in the back of her classrooms.

Bell receives $12 a day as a foster mom, and has also worked at a private organization that uses art with youth to help build confidence. Neither job goes far to pay for Harvard, even with her partial scholarship.

Bell, who is single, has found support among a network of classmates and colleagues.

''She gives them love,'' says Kerri Collins, a Harvard receptionist who has looked after Bell's babies when she took tests. ''She gives them attention, and they feel safe with her because she is so calm. She never gets angry.''

Sometimes, it's not so easy. Because drug-addicted newborns share the same withdrawal symptoms as adults, they are more likely than most newborns to break out in cries or in tremors. One baby cried for 18 hours straight.

Those situations, of course, don't help a foster mom's love life. She concedes it will be hard to find someone who shares her patience and compassion.

And charity.

''It's not about me; it's about them. It's fine for me to be this little spirit in the back of the child's life. When she leaves, I will be devastated, but I will know that I helped,'' Bell says, her eyes watering. ''These children deserve someone to cry over them.''

This story ran on page 1 of the Boston Globe's City Weekly section on 5/19/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.