See It: The Community being helped

At the end of April 2007, my brother Kyle left to become a member of the Peace Corp in Nicaragua. He was assigned to a school in La Virgen on the western bank of Lake Nicaragua as an English program coordinator. English, as a second language, is a necessity for those Nicaraguans hoping for jobs in the tourism field, which is growing quickly and is soon to surpass the agricultural industry.

As one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere, the tourism industry is essential to the country's economy, which means the English language is essential as well.

Being a teacher myself, I was proud of Kyle, and knew he was taking on a challenge that most Americans wouldn't think twice about.

However, I never fully understood what he was doing until I had the opportunity to visit him in Nicaragua. Growing up in a middle class family in Ohio, I didn't see poverty or at least not in the way I saw it in Nicaragua. I was taken aback by what I had seen.

Can you imagine having to use a latrine every day? Filling a bucket of water from a well to bathe? Having to hand wash your clothes and dishes without running water? Walking down the street and having chickens, horses, cows, and pigs roaming loose? Living in a small home with 10 other people?

Teaching is a challenge in our country, but to implement an English program in a school with very limited resources is all but impossible. I realize now that I take for granted many of the resources provided to me by my school. Outdated textbooks, two English dictionaries, and a pathetically small library of chapter books might be the best resources Kyle and his teaching counterpart, Adonis, have. And on top of very limited resources, they have a class size of 50 students!

We have already implemented a letter exchange between my class and Kyle's with hopes that Kyle's students gain experience with the English language. We also hope that my students gain an appreciation for what they have as well as an interest in cultures outside their own.

However, we (my students & I) feel the need to do more for these children and their dedicated teacher, Adonis. We are inspired to raise funds that will provide supplies for this overcrowded, under funded English program.

One US nickel is equal to almost one Nicaraguan Cordoba (0.9) so even a small donation will enable the school in La Virgen to purchase much needed supplies. In just 3 days my class has saved $57, and they are still motivated to keep on saving! I am so impressed with these 25 10 and 11 year olds. It's amazing how compassionate children can be!

I hope that you are able to take a step back and realize how lucky you are to have things like indoor plumbing, reliable electricity, access to quality education for yourself and/or your children.

Please know that we are fortunate in this country- including those of us who live paycheck to paycheck- and have more than most of the people in Nicaragua even think about having!

See It: The Community being helped

Fifty-three percent of the population in Haiti lacks access to a sustainable source of safe water, placing it last on the National Values for Water Poverty Index. Tragically, lack of access to safe drinking water is the second leading killer of children under the age of 5 (World Health Organization, 2004). Point-of-use water treatment systems have shown promising reductions of 30-50% in diarrheal disease in some countries (Centers for Disease Control, 2004). However, many rural areas of Haiti, like Les Cayes in southern Haiti, still do not have access to affordable systems. Equally disturbing is the lack of employment and job training for two-thirds of young people graduating from high school in these regions. The waste of human resources in one of the poorest nations of the world alarms policy-makers both locally and internationally. Despite the widespread concern, secondary schools in Les Cayes still offer no formal training in health or business.

Deep Springs International, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2006 by Michael Ritter and Ruth Dykstra, utilizes education and community development as a solution to these interrelated problems. Michael Ritter, an MPH candidate at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and Ruth Dykstra, an International Economic Development MBA candidate at Eastern University, are striving to unite their interests and expertise to help humanity. Mr. Ritter has dedicated himself to fighting poverty, specifically in the battle to improve access to safe drinking water. Ms. Dykstra desires to continue to positively impact poverty through empowerment and sustainable business development. They worked together to apply for 501(c)(3) status in the fall of 2005. Each raised support for two trips to Haiti during 2007 for the purpose of gathering preliminary information, developing relationships, and establishing DSI in the non-profit field.

The mission of DSI is to improve life in developing nations by identifying and encouraging the use of affordable water purification systems, teaching the importance of proper household water treatment practices, and creating new business opportunities for individuals via the teaching of entrepreneurship principles. With local partners, DSI will provide the mentoring, financing, and business relationships needed by new entrepreneurs. Deep Springs International seeks funding to develop business and health curricula that will equip Haitian students to participate in the sustainable development of their communities. A train-the-teacher program will provide Haitian schools with the necessary curricula, educational techniques, and equipment.

Since 2006, DSI has forged partnerships with the international humanitarian organizations World Concern and Missions of Love, the Haitian Ministry of Education, the Haitian Ministry of Health, and nine partner schools in Les Cayes in southern Haiti. In partnership with Missions of Love, DSI recently assumed management of the Jolivert Safe Water for Families (JSWF) Program that has successfully provided over 2,000 households with affordable water treatment products. The partner schools in Les Cayes anxiously await a train-the-trainer program for their teachers. World Concern has agreed to micro-finance the local entrepreneurs after training.

Immediate Outcomes

The immediate outcomes of the program are:
1.A business and health curriculum and teacher’s guidelines translated into French;
2.Two business centers in Haiti established to support and sustain graduates as they complete training programs from nine partner schools;
3.Twenty-seven teachers trained and supported in their educational efforts;
4.One-hundred and eigthy Haitian secondary students trained

Intermediate Outcomes

1.Empowerment and support for twenty new entrepreneurs to distribute affordable water treatment products;
2.Improved access to clean water for three thousand households;
3.Introduction of the DSI program to other areas in partnership with the Ministry of Education for southern Haiti; and
4.A growing number of social entrepreneurs.

Long Term Impact

The impact of DSI will be a reduction in preventable deaths for children, more income-producing jobs for young adults in Southern Haiti, and heightened interest in social entrepreneurship among Grove City College students. Additionally, success in Haiti, an impoverished country with arguably the world’s most contaminated water supply, will give us the knowledge and capability to assist additional countries where water supplies are dangerously contaminated and education does not necessarily lead to the prospect of a decent job.

See It: The Community being helped

My name is Sarah Geller, and I founded Arts Education International. Arts Education International (AEI) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide outlets of expression and positivity through the arts to orphaned and abandoned children in developing countries.

To realize this misssion, AEI holds two-week arts camps at orphanages and children's homes all over the world. We hire traditional visual artists, writers, musicians, dancers, and songwriters indigenous to each site’s location to teach workshops and lessons for the kids.

We also donate arts supplies and musical instruments to orphanages and children’s homes for the kids to use during the camps and all year!

The benefits of our programs include:

*Constructive outlets for coping with emotional trauma
*Positive alternatives to gang activity, drugs, and violence
*Attention and validation for kids without families
*A bridge between orphaned and abandoned children and the bearers cultural tradition within their communities.
*Opportunities for career development and training within the creative industries of their countries.

See It: The Community being helped

Irvington High School Do Something Club School is Cool Project: The main goal of this project is to target young people who are losing interest in their academics when they enter High School to give them the motivation and the insights on their futures. We have in mind to target freshmen. Studies have shown that within 3 weeks into the first year of high school has a big impact on the students. Either most students feel unmotivated due to the difference between their past academic lives or some feel motivated to keep going. Since high School is much tougher than other schooling, it creates a bigger impact in the students’ lives. In the other hand, there are students who are the top students of every class, but they reach a point where they feel burned out or not happy with their work then they lose the interest in what they once interest had. There are various types of students with different mindsets, but what they all have in common is that they forget about how important it is to graduate and pursue high studies. Most students are not able understand the value of their future lives since they are fine now; however, without knowing that, they lose the understanding of the importance of education and graduating and doing something productive with their lives. As a club, we would like to represent ourselves to create that change within their minds. It will be challenge however; we have planned few ways to execute this plan, which will create significance in them. The following explains some of the best plans and that we have as a club decided to do:
1. Create about 3 assemblies in the course of a school year. ( It will be a complete show )

2. During the Freshmen Orientation, make a Professional video to present.

3. As students, we can create that relation with the audience in which they will be able o relate themselves to.

4. Within the club, many motivated students have experienced the time in their life where they felt like quitting, but they drove themselves to success in life. Get them to speak at assemblies.

5. Work with the city council to present this to a city

6. Hold workshops to raise the interest in specific fields of careers (ex. Math, Science) many students are losing interest in those areas. We plan to achieve this as we build on our club. We will not be able to start off with everything. We will slowly build on what we can do.

7. Since this is a broad idea (Success) we plan to branch off with parts that specify into certain career interest. We have all these goals to achieve in getting the project to a successful status.

This project is not a project we as a club wish to finish and be done with within a one year span. We plan to keep this going for as long as possible. We have talked to our schools principle and teachers and they are excited for this project. They are all very supportive of this club and the project. This will not only improve the school’s students but it will create a difference in those lives who hated school once. That is the goal of our project. We want to create a big change in peoples’ lives, which they can remember in their life, through this.

See It: The Community being helped

Children Beyond Our Borders (CBOB) is a student nonprofit organization founded at the University of Florida whose mission is to alleviate the effects of poverty on children in developing countries by fulfilling their basic needs and investing in their education.

For the past three summers, the UF chapter of CBOB has traveled to Medellin, Colombia and worked with 23 orphan children. CBOB has offered educational workshops, infrastructure support (computer lab and playground), and has established a fruitful relationship with the University of Medellin in an effort to continue the success of the local project. Now CBOB wants to work in other areas of Colombia to reach more children as well as their families.

This year, 25 students ages 18 to 25 are going to Cartagena, Colombia, South America. During last summer's service trip, members of the group established contacts with the Granitos de Paz foundation and became interested in the learning center project this foundation was about to open in a needy neighborhood. This center is a daycare school, which offers its services to 144 families in the community, helping an average of 720 people. This project has been supported by the Colombian government as well as other nonprofits in Colombia. However, the funding obtained was not enough to restore and supply a vacant room (20.4 meters x 6.55 meters), which the foundation had assigned for a toy library or “Ludoteca.” CBOB’s role in this project is to restore and supply the “Ludoteca” in order to expand the services for a greater number of families and to impact the lives and futures of more children.

Here are the specific goals for each aspect of this project:

Ludoteca (toy library):
·To improve the quality of education for all children (4-7 years old) in the neighborhood. The daycare center will assist 144 children, but all children in the neighborhood will have access to the Ludoteca
·To provide the parents of the community with a place where they can spend quality time with their children
·Offer after school programs, which will be conducted by local university students

Crossing Borders Service Trip:
·Experiencing life in this under-resourced neighborhood, students will come back to the US with a sense of mission, ready to promote more initiatives that bring about peace in America and abroad
·The exchange of ideas among students from different nations will foster dialogue and transnational collaboration.
·After obtaining this first grant and fully developing this project, CBOB UF chapter will be able to inspire other chapters to continue helping children and nonprofits in other nations

Workshops:
Students from UF, along with Colombian university students and experts in the field of education and social services, will work together to organize a set of educational modules for the children in the community. The main goals are:
·Encourage the students to engage in new perspectives of education within the framework of international low-income communities
·raise awareness among students about educational issues; promote and strengthen partnerships between these two groups for future social endeavors
·Promote values, introduce new educational concepts, and foster a cultural exchange between the children and the students

It is important to mention that all volunteers pay for their own trip, and the money raised by the group is used only to finance projects. Thus far, the group has been able to raise money by doing spaghetti dinners, car washes, parties, auctions, bake sales, and collecting private donations.

Finally...
By taking action on this project, CBOB aspires to create a network between the children, our partners, and the community. Our commitment to our children will also raise the motivation for those already involved, and foster the incorporation of additional volunteers, thus building a world beyond their borders. CBOB expects to create a pleasant childhood environment in which the children can become prosperous scientists, leaders, and artists in the world at large. CBOB and social workers from Granitos de Paz will evaluate the outcomes of the project by maintaining attendance records of the Ludoteca to determine if the community is utilizing the facility. It is the goal of CBOB to encourage the university community to do research on the effectiveness of interventions made in this community.