Aid groups refocus during Ebola crisis
In light of recommendations from the Center for Disease Control, Utah State University issued a travel advisory restricting all university-related travel to countries affected by Ebola.
The advisory, which was sent via email to university students, faculty and staff in early February, also stated that all employees and students who travel to effected areas for any reason, including personal business “may not return to campus until given permission to do so by USU Student Health Services and Bear River Health Department.”
“Recent cases of Ebola infection in the United States have been dealt with successfully, yet Ebola remains a very serious health problem in West Africa,” according to the email. “Although the risk of Ebola infection to those of us in the Utah State University community is very low, it would be prudent to exercise an abundance of caution under the circumstances especially with regards to international travel.”
Although most of the university community won’t be jetting off to West Africa for a spring break getaway, some campus humanitarian organizations and others with ties to the university have shifted their focus to areas not effected by the virus.
Sustainable Engineering, Economics and Education, or SeeeMe, a local non-profit organization which focuses on implementing healthy and sustainable systems in Uganda, will not make its yearly trip to rural villages and orphanages in the country due to the virus.
“Safety is our number-one priority,” said Sonia Manuel-Dupont, USU professor and member of Seee Me. “We would not want to put the lives of our students in danger. It was not a hard decision to make.”
SeeeMe has several projects devoted to bettering communities in rural Uganda, including women’s health seminars, the instillation of wells for clean water, providing educational and teacher-training material to local schools, delivering fabric sanitary napkins to keep girls in school and several other projects.
The organization decided in August that the epidemic would be long lasting and, due to their work in remote orphanages, they could come in contact with children who had been exposed. But their work has not stalled. Manuel-Dupont said service groups have continued to sew the sanitary napkins and local fundraisers have been held to assist a baby orphanage in Lira, Uganda.
The Ebola crisis has given the organization time to consider expanding the scope of their organization, with the possibility of taking shorter trips to U.S. destinations to bring aid as another option to the month-long summer stay in Uganda. Mini projects on the Navajo reservation in Southern Utah is an option currently being discussed.
“There are a lot of students who would like to be involved but they can’t afford to take off a whole month in the summer. That’s a huge amount of time,” Manuel-Dupont said. “It almost means you can’t have a job, and very few students can do that. So it wouldn’t be the same time commitment, and we might even be able to take advantage of other vacations, like spring vacation.”
In the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, the Small Enterprise Education and Development program, or SEED, has also had to evaluate and adjust its scope. SEED is an internship program that turns students into business advisers for entrepreneurs in third-world countries. Working with the organization Mentors International, students travel to Peru, Ghana and now the Philippines to help entrepreneurs launch businesses that could potentially break the cycle of poverty.
Due to the Ebola crisis, interns have not traveled to Ghana since summer semester. However, Ashley Brasseaux, a SEED student director at USU, said the program has since expanded to include the Philippines and has the potential to continue expanding with more student interest.
“As Africa comes back into the program when Ebola’s gone, we hope to grow the program and to keep students in Africa, Philippines and Peru,” Brasseaux said.
Natalee Champlin, administrator of the Jeffrey D. Clark Center for Entrepreneurship, added that although Ghana isn’t currently an option, help is needed in many other countries.
“There’s thousands of entrepreneurs in the Philippines alone that we could be helping,” she said. “There’s plenty to be done.”
Whether involved in an internship or not, students don’t have to travel far to experience humanitarian work in a new culture, Manuel-Dupont said.
“Students who still want to have those kinds of experiences should look around in the U.S. for opportunities,” she said. “For example, the four corners area in Southern Utah. There’s all kinds of experiences you could have if your desire is to get into another culture and another language and do humanitarian work. There’s just so many opportunities here in the U.S.”
— manda.perkins@hotmail.com
Twitter: @perkins_manda