Can a study abroad experience change lives?

“My time in Malawi was an amazing, humbling, eye-opening experience. It always makes the world seem a little bit smaller whenever you travel somewhere new and see that apart from the differences, we all have a lot of similarities” - Caitlin Sheffield, International Business student and participant in Malawi program

Can a study abroad experience change lives?

Eleven students from Appalachian State University rang in the New Year this January on the way to the airport, bound for Southern Africa as part of the Walker College of Business’ first study abroad program in Malawi. They planned to learn first-hand about managing Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) and the obstacles to Malawi’s economic development. They came back with a plan to help one village find a sustainable way to fund programs serving orphans and those suffering from AIDS in their community.

Malawi is one of the ten poorest countries in the world and its economic struggles are written on the landscape. A drive from the airport to old City Center passes rolling hills, almost bare of trees, dotted with the growing stalks of corn that will feed the country this year. With the electrical grid only reaching 4% of the population, deforestation is mostly driven by the need for fuel to cook and heat homes. In the city, long lines of vehicles crowd the streets near gas stations because petrol supplies are scarce. This year’s profits from tobacco exports were not sufficient to cover the cost of enough imported oil. Reliance on tobacco as the main export and corn as the staple crop has left the population vulnerable to changing environmental and economic factors. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has hit hard here, combining with other health factors to reduce the life expectancy to about 38 years. Hundreds of thousands of children have been orphaned as parents succumb to the virus.

World Camp hosted the group during the program. Through their connections, students met with Jewish Heart for Africa, a provider of solar energy technology, and Never-ending Food, a permaculture and nutrition project. They also learned more about the tobacco industry and visited the home of William Kamkwamba, author of the bestselling book, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” which tells of William’s experiences building a windmill to bring electricity to his home. Students traveled to Zambia for a photo safari and spent a day on the shores of Lake Malawi, learning about exports of aquarium fish and alligator hides, as well as local service projects run by the Cool Runnings Lodge, which reinvests 45% of profits into the community.

The final activity was a service project and homestay in the village of Mchezi a short drive from the capital along the highway to Salima. Moments after leaving the smooth tarmac, the road to Mchezi becomes rutted and rocky and full of people, winding through low block and mud structures with thatched or corrugated roofs. Such a scene is common, however this village is unique in one particular way. When this community saw AIDS ravaging its population, they organized to take care of the sick and orphaned and the Mchezi Community-Based Organization (CBO) was born.

Since then, the CBO’s activities have expanded to provide home-based care for 150 AIDS/HIV patients in the late stages of the disease, food and supervision for 3,700 orphans, an early childhood development program serving 600 children and job training programs for community residents. These efforts are supported by grants from various governmental and non-governmental organizations.  Unfortunately, when funding dries up, the efforts can’t continue. A fundamental challenge is trying to make these efforts sustainable, independent of the whims of granting institutions. And this is where our business students found their opportunity to have a positive impact.

The directors of Mchezi CBO are hoping to fund community efforts through the construction of a corn mill.  Currently, village residents transport their corn several kilometers and pay to have the corn milled into flour.  Students did a study identifying the start-up costs of establishing a mill in the village, assessed the monthly operating costs, determined the projected revenue from milling fees and found that start-up costs could be recovered in the first year of operation.  The revenue generated from the mill thereafter will fund the activities of the CBO, reducing the reliance on outside donors.  Further, the mill will create several jobs in the community. 

“Getting the mill running will cost around $25,000 in US currency,” estimates trip leader, Dr. Meznar.

Students have now formed a club to raise funds for the mill. The project allows Walker College students to apply the skills they have learned in the business program to promote sustainable development in one of the neediest parts of the world.

As Ethan Herman, an entrepreneurship student and leader of the Maize Mill Project, stated, “The Mchezi Maize Mill Project has given an opportunity for Appalachian students to make a difference. Underprivileged communities are reaching out for help and we have been given the opportunity to capitalize... Daily, the project is putting useful value to my skills learned at the College of Business… Malawi has changed my life in numerous ways. It opens your eyes to let you see the world in another way. I'm fortunate to have the things I do. When you see people struggling for food, it will change you too.”

For more information on the Mchezi Maize Mill project, please contact Ethan Herman (hermanec@email.appstate.edu).  More information on the Malawi study-abroad program, including photos and student blogs, can be found at www.international.business.appstate.edu

A Community Collaboration: World Camp's Activism Club at Mchezi

Cyrus meeting with community members at Mchezi

Last Thursday Reinier and Cyrus made the trip back to Mchezi, just 45 minutes outside of Lilongwe, to meet with the brand new World Camp Club as well as with several key stakeholders in the community to discuss how we can continue to work together on educational improvement.

We all agree that activism clubs are very important in continuing the debate among students around HIV/AIDS and the environment as well as in decreasing drop-out rates (students have something on their hands after school instead of engaging in risky behavior). The potential of activism clubs is huge (if you haven’t already done so, watch the video of the HIV/AIDS club at Matapila FPS on our facebook page), not just in engaging its members through educational activities but also by spreading messages about HIV/AIDS, deforestation, gender equality, and nutrition into the community. However, as our field assistant Cyrus Jenda noted, what these students and club mentors (teachers) need is continuous support from World Camp by giving them that little push in the right direction. 

Club Members holding a (semi)secret voting for officers

Three weeks ago we started our first World Camp Club at Mkoma FPS and when we revisited them last week we realized that Cyrus was right: over a hundred kids showed up (proudly waving the World Camp Club flag created by our interns in January) but they did not know what to do next. Cyrus sat down with them and the students elected their president, secretary, vice-secretary, and treasurer. After a long brainstorm session the students decided that this week they will start an outreach project focused on how to care for HIV positive people and they are going to meet with  Mchezi CBO and the group village headman to see how they can all work together to plant more trees. Also, their mentors will continue weekly empowerment writing workshops that we introduced during our 4-day camp and the students brought some of their stories to class for us to read.

Club officers preparing to assume their new duties

The elected students were nervous at first about their responsibilities but their mentors told them that they should not worry as this is a learning process and this will prepare them for dealing with their responsibilities later in life. Cyrus told the club members that just like World Camp they are a group of young minds who think creatively about finding simple solutions to complicated issues and by working hard they too will grow!  

In the meantime Reinier had a meeting with representatives of the CBO, surrounding schools, and the Ministry of Education to discuss how we can increase collaboration between the 11 primary schools in the area as well as have the wider community more involved with educational strengthening. World Camp has been working on narrowing our focus through an innovative and holistic model, and listening to their ideas has convinced us even more that we are going in the right direction! More on that will follow in our next blog post; stay tuned! 

The Darker Side of Diamonds

“A diamond is forever.”  That gem of advertising genius created over 65 years ago ensured that diamonds would achieve an almost mythical status as the most enduring gifts of all.  But what of the diamonds’ origins?  We’ve all heard of blood diamonds and shuttered to think of the lives lost and pain suffered all in search of those beautiful, priceless stones.  But that all happens thousands of miles away in Africa and besides, aren’t all diamonds we buy certified as “conflict free”?  

Not so, according to many experts familiar with the workings of the Kimberly Process, the system of cross-border certification developed almost a decade ago to deal with the problem of so-called “blood diamonds.”  Critics of the Process claim that it is in need of redefinition to address current conflicts that are of a different nature than those dealt with in the past.  Garnering particular outrage is the Kimberly Process’s recent endorsement of diamonds exported from the Marange fields of eastern Zimbabwe, a region taken over by Robert Mugabe’s military in 2008 amid widespread reports of violence and killings.  While the Kimberly Process previously focused on rebel movements that used diamonds to fuel their uprisings against legitimate governments, advocacy groups now urge that the greatest concern should be corrupt governments like Mugabe’s in Zimbabwe who use diamond proceeds to line their own pockets.

The decision by the Kimberly Process to endorse the Marange diamonds “upset the delicate, triangular balance of more than 70 governments, diamond industry representatives and advocacy groups that united” to form it in 2003.  Global Witness, a British advocacy group pulled out in December, claiming that Kimberly had failed to deal with “diamonds [that] have been fueling violence and human rights violations.”  Others remain optimistic that change will come since the United States assumed formal leadership on January 1st.  What is undeniable is the world’s thirst for more and more diamonds.  While the U.S. remains the world’s largest consumer of stones, China is certainly not far behind and Chinese mining companies are already positioning themselves for a windfall.  In fact, Anjin, a joint Chinese-Zimbabwean company was the biggest beneficiary of Kimberly’s Marange endorsement with over two million carats in diamonds stockpiled and waiting for the announcement.

To read the whole article in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/world/europe/14iht-letter14.html?ref=world