When Natasha Martin of Half Moon Bay heard that a group of homeschooled children on the Coastside had planned a series of fund-raisers to help her nonprofit organization, GRACE USA, she was astonished - and grateful.

"They were inspired by the idea of educating orphans in Africa, by the fact that when they raise money, other children who would normally be servants or herdsmen can go to school, like them," she said.

Such inspiration was what moved Martin to found the nonprofit GRACE - or Grassroots Alliance for Community Education - five years ago.

Registered in the United States and in tandem with the international non-governmental organization GRACE Africa, it works with communities in sub-Saharan Africa to support grassroots organizations that respond to and mitigate the AIDS epidemic. Some of that work has involved treating pregnant mothers so that the HIV virus is not passed to their children at birth.

The Naisula Orphan Education Program, a program of GRACE USA, brings education to children orphaned by the epidemic. Over those five years it has shepherded some 200 students up through primary and high school in the Butula district of Kenya.

Martin tells a story she knows by heart, of young Beatrice Ajuang, who Naisula helped educate since sixth grade and who is now a junior at the Lugulu Girls' School.

Martin tells how she once heard Ajuang say that "I am no longer called 'the orphan girl.' I am Beatrice Ajuang. People who don't know the name refer to me as 'that bright girl.'"

Martin says she is also inspired by the Coastside homeschoolers' efforts to help the children who call her "Mama Natasha." Modestly, she says she'd rather they didn't call her that, but the moniker fits.

"My dream for them is, they can become self-sufficient members of their community," she said, adding that in a ripple effect, "Most have already offered to support other orphans."