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Friday, 7 November 2008

Malawi trip opens students’ eyes

A dozen University of Lethbridge students had an eye-opening experience teaching people in southeast Africa about malaria through songs, dance and storytelling.
“I remember the little things like talking to these children. They would touch your hair because it was straight and look at the veins in your skin because a lot of them had never seen a white person before,” said Tiffany Tanabe, one of the students who spent almost a month in Malawi as part of a malaria prevention program between the university and Museums of Malawi.
The fourth-year nursing student was most impressed with a visit to the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS, where she met a lot of people stricken by the disease.
Organizer Aaron Maluwa, education officer of the Museums of Malawi, was impressed by how quickly the Lethbridge students threw themselves into the project. Teams, bearing mosquito nets for the residents, went into rural areas to increase awareness about malaria prevention.
“The students learned a lot about poverty in Malawi,” Maluwa said, adding the program was about breaking down communication barriers.
Maluwa was in Lethbridge Thursday to spread word about the problems they face in Malawi including malaria and HIV/ AIDS.
The Lethbridge students focused on two high-risk target groups — pregnant women and children under five.
Malawi is a small country where four million people are packed into 118,000 square kilometres. It is a place where HIV/AIDS runs rampant, affecting a million people, with 70,000 having died from malaria.
About 60 per cent of the population can’t read or write and some 60 per cent live below the poverty line. Most communication is through dance, drama and song.
“Without all of (the university students’) support, we could not have done this,” Maluwa emphasized, adding the Malawians enjoyed the students so much they wish for their return.
“As soon as they got there they interacted with the people and started asking questions and started getting involved,” said Jean Harrowing.
The health studies professor, who accompanied the group, said the program started after Maluwa met the president of the Lethbridge HIV/AIDS Connection during anniversary celebrations at the Galt Museum last year.
“I think they learned a lot. A lot of them described it as a life-changing experience,” Harrowing said, adding discussions are already underway for a return trip to Malawi in 2010, this time with a likely focus on HIV/AIDS.
Galt Museum curator Wendy Aitkens was impressed the Museums of Malawi play such an important role in public education.
“I’m always intrigued by museums who have such a social conscience,” Aitkens said, adding the Galt plays a similar role of bringing in people to give first hand accounts for its exhibits.
“What I took away from it is that it (Museums of Malawi) are so much part of the social conscience of the country, that (it was unusual) for him to be talking about changing the culture. Most museums talk about preserving culture,” she said.

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