From 1958 to 1975, she battled illiteracy in Africa, teaching reading, writing, health and Christian religion to thousands of illiterate adults.

From 1916 to 1927, they lived in Porterville, Bakersfield, Sacramento, Oregon, and Fresno, and during this time had four children: Howard, Kenneth, Muriel, and Donald.

For the next few years, Helen applied herself as a volunteer to help Santa Clara Valley migrant camp adults and children.

She held worship services, and taught the children and the mothers who weren't working by holding classes on sewing, crafts, reading and writing.

Dr. Laubach was a Methodist teacher and writer, who developed a method of teaching people of remote cultures how to read and write in their own language.

[2] In Dr. Laubach's book Forty Years With The Silent Billion, he mentions that Helen Roberts was one of the most dedicated workers that the literacy campaign had ever had.

In spite of her advanced age (she was a grandmother of fifteen when she moved to Africa), her work in Kenya contributed much to the remarkable progress of literacy in that country.

[9] In 1959, students traveled to the US in a coordinated "airlift", substantially sponsored by Harry Belafonte, Jackie Robinson, Sidney Poitier, and Senator John F. Kennedy's family foundation.

Tom Mboya, a Kenyan politician during Jomo Kenyatta's government, was founder of the Nairobi People's Congress Party.

[11] In 1960, Helen was contacted by two women, Stella Greenway and Margaret Carmody, who had been seeking to establish a literacy program in Rhodesia.

Helen in Kenya and Louise d'Oliveira in the Congo, visited Harara (then Salisbury) and provided charts, copies of primers and the encouragement to form the Adult Literacy Organization (ALO).

In 1963, Helen moved to Salisbury with her friend, Alice Sanderson, and provided the fledgling ALO with material and training for volunteer tutors.

In the course of her teachings and writings in Kenya and Rhodesia, Roberts and her literacy associate Elizabeth "Betty" Mooney Kirk would cross paths with many inspired and gifted Africans, in whom they saw great promise.

Helen and Betty were instrumental in coordinating passage for many of these students to America to further their education, with the hopes that they would return to Africa to aid in the literacy cause and improve African leadership.

[2][7][14] They coordinated first the completion of his correspondence school certificate, and later his American college applications which culminated in his acceptance to the University of Hawaii.

[14] She accepted this responsibility in spite of her very limited source of income, which consisted of a small social security check each month.