Students volunteer in Malawi

While some students were sunbathing and relaxing this summer, seven Ithaca College students were feeding 22 orphaned babies and helping widows in Malawi, a country in southeast Africa.

The students, all Health Sciences and Human Performance majors, traveled through northern and central Malawi from May 19 to June 1 with two nurses, Mary Taylor and Erica Weiss, from the college and received one college credit for their work.

The trip was open to all students on campus, and those interested applied through the Office of International Programs. The seven students who traveled were: seniors Maggie Burgess, Catherine Hegarty, Mike Hopewell and Anna Sumerlin; and juniors Alissa Kersey, Maddie Kennedy and Laura Schoch.

Taylor, a resident nurse at the college, said it had been her longtime dream to go to

Africa and help with health care issues. When Janet Wigglesworth, associate dean of Health Sciences and Human Performance, heard Taylor talk of her desire to help in Africa, she encouraged Taylor and Weiss to make the trip a short-term study abroad program.

Wigglesworth said she hopes the trip will become an annual study abroad program for all students on campus.

Taylor and the students worked with the Ministry of Hope, a Malawian organization established to help children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. The Ministry of Hope sponsors crisis-care nurseries and orphan-feeding centers throughout impoverished villages in Malawi. The students also contributed $500 each toward nine “Ready Release” boxes to donate to the Ministry of Hope. Each box was filled with medicine so the organization’s medical teams could have the necessary supplies when traveling directly to the villages.

Malawi, a country of 14 million, is home to 1 million orphans. While in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi, the students stayed at Marian Medical Center, a dormlike environment created for housing health care volunteers.

Taylor said the students helped the Malawian nannies any way they could.

“They jumped right in,” she said. “They fed babies, rocked babies and took them for walks.”

The students also traveled to a feeding center, a place where orphaned children can go to receive a free meal. At times, children walked more than two miles to consume their only meal of the day.

Burgess said she became attached to the children, even after only spending a short time with them.

“It was really hard to leave,” Burgess said.

The group also worked closely with Malawian widows, who traditionally are stripped of possessions by their late husband’s family shortly after his death. The students purchased three mattresses to donate to widows who were only used to sleeping on cramped, dirty floors.

Taylor said it was difficult for the students to watch the struggles of the country unfold in front of their eyes on a daily basis, from the extreme poverty to the lack of medical equipment.

“There was something every day that you would drop your chin and want to cry about,” she said.

Schoch, who always wanted to volunteer in poor regions of Africa, said she was most shocked by the poverty in Malawi.

“I thought I was prepared for it, but I really wasn’t,” she said.

Taylor said the people of Malawi showed gratefulness and respect toward the students.

“They call Malawi the warm heart of Africa,” Taylor said.

Kennedy, who decided to apply for the trip because she had always been interested in volunteer work and Africa, said the upbeat personalities of the children is what she remembers the most.

“These kids have nothing, and yet they run around with smiles on their faces,” she said. “It was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever done.”