Caitlin LeQuire and her sister Rachel worked with La Tortuga Feliz, a non-profit organization located on an island 30 minutes off the shore of Costa Rica. The program is dedicated to protecting sea turtles from poachers and predators. For Caitlin, the deciding factor was her schedule. “We would have all day to relax on the beach, and then we would patrol the beaches at night,” says LeQuire, a freshman culinary arts major at Johnson & Wales. During patrol shifts, volunteers walked on the beach in black clothes, lighting the way using red LED lamps invisible to the turtles. They collected any laid turtle eggs, and took them to a hatchery for documentation. Afterward, they dug new nests to keep the eggs safe. La Tortuga Feliz also provides local islanders with jobs, giving them an alternative to poaching turtle eggs—the island’s primary source of income. Rachel, an international relations junior at SU, found this aspect most important. “I try to invest my time in organizations that have the best interest for the locals in mind,” she says.
Global Medical Brigades helps students lead their own trips in Honduras, Panama, and Ghana. Students start chapters on their college campuses then fundraise and plan for the trips themselves. “Before we went, a lot of time was spent figuring out what supplies we could get from where,” says Kristen Culmo, a senior public health major who went on Syracuse University’s first brigade to Honduras in January 2010. “Almost everyone had an extra suitcase that just had medicine in it.” In Honduras, the brigade set up three one-day medical clinics in rural villages. Spanish-speaking students would take vital signs of patients and listen to their complaints. Though it may help, knowledge of Spanish is not required for the trip. “The group leaders and the doctors could translate, so it wasn’t necessary,” Culmo says. “But it’s something I wish I had known.” Culmo says a few schools travel there during vacation times, but because there are so many villages, they can only visit each once or twice per year. “It was difficult to constantly reach them,” says Culmo. “Even though we were making an impact, we were only supplying medicine for one month.”
19 medley | spring 2011
LA TORTUGA FELIZ
GLOBAL MEDICAL BRIGADE Disappointed with the insufficient international business aid in Ghana, Kristin Johnson, who received a master’s of business administration from Northwestern University, co-founded her own non-profit organization to provide resources to female entrepreneurs. “Women were telling us that you can provide us with business support, but our markets in Ghana are dying, and we need to find export markets,” Johnson says. Women In Progress (WIP) provides training in business management, marketing, and technology to female entrepreneurs. The program is built on the belief that growing sustainable businesses can eliminate poverty. WIP graduates will be able to provide more jobs for other females in their villages by learning to expand their businesses. Many student volunteers or interns come from technology or business backgrounds, but some are interested in women’s studies or fair trade volunteerism. “It’s easier to develop projects where they can start something and finish it,” Johnson says. She encourages students to stay for at least three weeks. “[They’ll] feel like they’ve accomplished something.”
WOMEN IN PROGRESS
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In 1986, Global Routes sent its first group of volunteers to Kenya. Since then, it has offered summer programs for high school students, semester-long programs for college and gap year students, and custom programs for post-grad volunteers. Laura Litwiller, program director of Global Routes, sees volunteering as beneficial to young people. “You see a community that is completely different, and it opens your perspective,” she says. The semester programs are intended for students taking time off from college. For three months, they teach English in a rural village and live with a local family. Group leaders support volunteers by checking in weekly, communicating with host families, and organizing group activities and travels. For older college students, Global Routes recommends custom programs offered in Thailand, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Belize, Kenya, Tanzania, and India that act as independent studies. The programs encourage students to stay a minimum of one month.
GLOBAL ROUTES