Career
She worked with Frank Laubach using his "Each One Teach One" reading method. She traveled and taught in India, Africa and the United States. While working in Kenya, she provided the financial support for Barack Obama, Senior to come to the United States to study.
In this role, her work included running a mission boarding school in India and for two years she was head of a project for the British Government in Kenya training teachers and adults to read in some of the tribal languages.
An article by Michael Dobbs in The Washington Post states that Kirk provided most of the financial support during Obama Senior"s early years in the United States, according to the Tom Mboya archives at Stanford University. Kirk and Roberts are mentioned in Barack Obama"s 1995 book, Dreams from My Father (pg 427 hardcover).
Roberts encouraged and supported his many college applications and correspondences, while Kirk provided college recommendation letters. Kirk and Roberts raised the money necessary for Barack to travel to America.
While Obama attended UH, Helen committed to watching over and financially supporting the family that he had left behind, for as long as she remained in Nairobi.
She accepted this responsibility in spite of her very limited source of income, which consisted of a small social security check each month. She earned master"s degrees from George Washington University and Syracuse University. They lived for a time in West Africa before moving to California.
Kirk taught school in the Oakland area for many years before retiring to central California.