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The
Need is Great...The Rewards Greater
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This Issue: |
Spring
2006 Issue 11
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Volunteering:
Does it really help?
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SIGN
UP NOW FOR SUMMER Volunteering &
Internships
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A
Journey of the Soul - Doctor's poetic story of
Thai/Tsunami service
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Tanzania
Fellowship Update
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Life
as a GSC Participant in Tanzania
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By
Michelle McKeever
At first, I couldn’t
believe it. I was just in plain shock. It had to
be there. My eyes scanned the room desperately.
It was still missing. It may really be gone!
(...) My pack and things had all been right
there, against my chair, inches away from my
foot, as I had intensely typed this outgoing
email at the Internet Café. I had risked
watching my pack to write the following. The
email went:
Hi there Everyone!
We
taught today out in a rural community - farmers
who want the HIV education to train their
communities. We held classes outside, under an
awning. (By choice, I walked, like the villagers
do, 7 km to get there.) In the afternoon, we
taught another class to 15-20 yr old girls lucky
enough to attend a vocational sewing program.
With an estimated 30% HIV+ rate in this
community, today was the "condom use" lesson.
The students knew how important it was to learn
about this, but they were so afraid. One girl
was shaking, another one cried when she
practiced putting a condom on the dark dildo.
But what else can we do? We stress abstinence in
our classes, but most women do not have the
choice to abstain. Some are given away with a
dowry. They’ll probably need to use condoms at
some point.
After weeks volunteering in
Arusha, I had such a wonderful weekend getaway -
went on 2 safaris. I can't wait to show you the
photos -- the Land Rover kept stopping for the
herds of zebras on the road! I kept thinking of
"The Lion King." I had to laugh at the skittish
warthogs speeding across the path prancing off
with their long stringy black tails straight up
in the air. Oh, and we saw a large lion trying
to mate -- but it appeared the female lioness
had received some of our AIDS prevention
training.
...
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The
Seeds of Sustenance (SOS) Fellowship Program is
currently gearing up for the launch of the Third
Bi-Annual Fellowship Program. Training will
begin in July in Arusha, Tanzania. After two
successful years of fellow placement and
cooperation with our participating organization
partners in East African development, we are
looking forward to another year of education and
capacity building in rural Tanzania. We will
also be further expanding our HIV/AIDS,
Nutrition and Agricultural programs throughout
East Africa.
Hannah Reid, the SOS
Program Coordinator in GSC’s San Francisco
office, is busy recruiting the July 2006 “class”
of fellows. This year’s pool of candidates is
stunning – highly qualified both academically
and professionally, and possessing extraordinary
international experience, from working for the
World Health Organization in Rwanda to
volunteering with the Peace Corps in the Kingdom
of Tonga. Needless to say, we are thrilled with
the interest the SOS Program has generated this
year. At the same time, we are not looking
forward to the very difficult selection process.
Our current fellows in the field with
participating organizations FAO, DAI and GSC-TZ,
are almost too busy to check in, but report
(when there is time) great progress in their
work. Tara Bukow, a fellow with GSC Tanzania, is
especially busy organizing GSC’s HIV/AIDS Youth
Training Summer Day Camp for high school
students in the Arusha area. The 300 local
students currently signed up for the summer camp
will be trained in HIV/AIDS prevention education
by GSC fellows and volunteers, and will rejoin
their fellow students next year as peer
educators.
That’s all from SOS! Looking
forward to a busy summer in Africa!
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©
2006 Global Service Corps
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