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Three CMC students took lessons in leadership and service on the road this summer, building community and developing intercultural communication skills in rural South Africa. They traveled as part of a development project in rural South Africa sponsored by Student Movement for Real Change (SMRC), a student-driven international development nonprofit organization. Along with 15 other students from around the United States, project manager Vanessa Carter '08 and project participants Elizabeth Arkell '10 and Luke Penn-Hall '10 volunteered at local primary schools and sponsored educational community events in Mpumalanga province, South Africa.
Carter became involved with Student Movement for Real Change after meeting executive director Saul Garlick during her semester in Washington, D.C. Garlick founded the organization as an undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University in 2002. The two began collaborating on the "Students for Students" project—a series of education programs in rural South Africa that would thrive on volunteerism. They worked in collaboration with the Buffelshoek Trust, a South Africa-based nonprofit that SMRC has been working with for five years.
In the eastern South African region of Mpumalanga, days began with Carter, Arkell, Penn-Hall and their college-aged peers teaching supplemental classes at nearby primary schools. After-school learning continued with adult education programs that included computer basics and Internet skills. In the early mornings, evenings and on weekends, several participants volunteered to tutor high school students in math and science for national exams. Others worked to build and renovate local facilities, including constructing two libraries, clearing a soccer field, and painting two preschools and a community center.
College students also hosted six community health days to educate the local community about HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy, bringing in nurses from outside clinics, and emphasizing the importance of getting tested and practicing safe sex.
Carter says that after the formal presentations, many in the audience stayed to participate in discussions and ask questions.
"Our community health days had a major impact," she says. "The community listened and the people were grateful for the education they had never before received," Carter says.
SMRC plans to repeat the Students for Students trip to South Africa bi-annually. Residents of Makrepeni, a town in Mpumalanga have indicated a need for a medical clinic within their community, and with the region's high unemployment rates, adult education and job training also are pressing issues.
"I certainly realized this summer just how frustrating the reality of issues facing impoverished people can be, and how there are no quick fixes or solutions," Carter says. "It takes time. But every project participant that worked with us, myself included, considered this experience the best in their lives.
"I have no doubt our work left a lasting impact on the people's lives we touched, and we hope they understand how much we learned from them," she says.
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Vanessa Carter '08 at Samson Primary School computer center, with computers donated by Telkom Foundation. Carter and 15 other college students, including two other CMCers, taught computer training to children in all grade levels in South Africa over the summer.
Professional artist/photographer Hilary Wallis, who documented the trip, snapped this photo of (from left): Candice Roush, California State University, Bakersfield; Katie Charles, Northwestern University; Luke Penn-Hall '10; Shelby Ikeda, University of California, Los Angeles; Vanessa Carter '08; and Julie Curtiss Lusher, Boston University.
Elizabeth Arkell '10, dancing with children from neighboring village at braai (a community barbecue).
Carter (third from left, top row) worked with local community youth to flatten a field that will serve as the first sports field in Makrepeni.
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