NASHVILLE, Tenn. – About 20 Vanderbilt University students will work with health organizations in Uganda this summer as part of that country’s response to HIV/AIDS.
Uganda’s HIV/AIDS response is viewed as a model in sub-Saharan Africa, and work continues there to help the more than 500,000 people the Centers for Disease Control estimates are infected with HIV. The students plan to help in these efforts in the country’s capital, Kampala, June 16-July 17.
The Kampala Project on Global Citizenship is an example of Vanderbilt’s efforts to expand its nationally recognized commitment to service learning. The university has been a leader in the growing trend of colleges and universities striving to not only develop bright minds, but community citizens as well. Vanderbilt has the oldest and one of the largest Alternative Spring Break (ASB) programs in the nation – during ASB students spend their time off working to serve communities across the country – and the university’s Office of Active Citizenship and Service, which coordinates ASB, also helps students, faculty and staff plan other service trips across the country and around the world.
The Kampala Project is a partnership of the Office of Active Citizenship and Service, the School of Medicine’s Institute for Global Health, and the Center for Medicine, Health and Society.
“Our aim is to foster lifelong civic involvement among our students. Their academic coursework helps them become even brighter students, but we encourage them to take that a step further to explore how they can apply that knowledge to promote social justice and public awareness as active citizens serving the community,” said Mark Dalhouse, director of the Office of Active Citizenship and Service, who is serving as program director for the Kampala Project. Dalhouse will make the trip with the students.
Students making the trip to Kampala will work with some of the city’s various non-governmental organizations to help those infected with and orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Working, however, is only part of the experience. The students took a preparatory course this spring designed to help them understand cultural differences and the global context of Ugandan issues and development. Their education will continue this summer with group discussion and study while living and working daily alongside Ugandans.
“These students will be immersed in a different culture, learn firsthand about a global health crisis and have the opportunity to interact with Ugandan political leaders, artists, doctors and non-profit leaders in an innovative human rights dinner seminar series. The experiences gained by these students will be invaluable to them and will enhance the university community once they return,” said Greg Barz, associate professor of ethnomusicology and anthropology, who is serving as the students’ academic adviser during the trip.
Barz has studied the successful role music has played in the fight against AIDS in Uganda and is the author of the 2006 book Singing for Life: HIV/AIDS and Music in Uganda.
“It is going to be an amazing, eye-opening experience, and our goal is to set up lasting relationships with the local community so this project can be sustainable for many years to come,” said David Amsalem, a student making the trip to Uganda.
Vanderbilt students have helped residents in Louisiana’s rural Washington Parish clean up in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and worked in a medical and dental clinic started by a Vanderbilt medical student in Xela, Guatemala. A trip is also planned to Lwala, Kenya, where students will help another Vanderbilt medical student build a clinic in his home village where people frequently have to walk miles to receive medical care.
For more information, visit the Kampala Project website at http://web.mac.com/gregory.barz/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html. The project’s participants plan to blog about their experiences on the site.
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Media Contact: Princine Lewis, 615-322-NEWS
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