By Julie Espinosa
This summer 2006, the all-volunteer organization Empowering Nations will work on projects in Ghana and other countries, to bolster literacy, health care and the economic self-reliance of families around the world.
The organization is seeking student volunteers, especially those with a business skills background, though anyone with the desire to learn can be trained. Besides Ghana, where no language skills are required, students who speak Spanish, Portuguese or Thai are needed to serve in Peru, Panama, Mozambique and Thailand.
Empowering Nations was conceived by Mike Poelman, who graduated in English in December 2005. He got hooked on international service in high school, when he worked with the Ouelessebougou-Utah Alliance in Salt Lake City. Later, he served a mission in the Dominican Republic and played rugby in Zimbabwe and South Africa, places where he saw poverty up close.
?We don?t realize how much we have and how many people struggle in poverty,? Poelman said.
He learned about microcredit, the practice of providing small loans to the poorest of the poor so they can grow a small business, when he volunteered with Help International in Guatemala in 2002. Then he took a class on becoming a class on becoming a global change agent taught by Warner Woodworth, a student of organizational behavior. There, Empowering Nations was born. The idea was to have a reciprocal effect between the people serving and being served.
?You hope people living in poverty get empowered,? Poelman said. ?But I also hope people who go empower themselves and change to become proactive in their approach to fighting poverty.?
Poelman used his experience in other organizations to create an effective and efficient one himself. The cost to volunteers is lower than at many other organizations ($2,100-$2,500 for one to three months, most of which goes toward air fare). That?s in part because none of the Empowering Nations staff are paid. An eager student with a particular expertise fills each behind-the-scenes position, like the accounting major who manages their finances.
Also, Empowering Nations usually partners with an established local organization that already knows the country. In Ghana, they will work with Voluntary Child Aid, in Peru with Eagle-Condor Humanitarian and in Panama with Care for Life.
?I wanted to create a mobile, fluid organization that could get money and training to the people who need it most,? Poelman said.
The first project was to be in Somalia, but things didn?t quite work out as planned. Poelman and other students were excited to go after investing a lot of time into researching the country?s needs and establishing connections with Somalis. But the unrest in the south suddenly spread to the formerly peaceful north, when warlords began targeting any foreigner trying to help people. Empowering Nations postponed its trip when a British couple running a school was killed, and then cancelled when a German aid worker was murdered.
?I think we?ll still do it, in like, 10 years,? Poelman said. ?In Ghana there aren?t murders all over the place going on against foreign workers. It?s stable but very much in poverty.?
The students changed their focus and went to Brazil.
100 students from Empowering Nations traveled to Thailand last summer to help with reconstruction after the December 2004 tsunami. They worked on building houses, fishing boats and creating jobs for women making pearl jewelry. They also worked on a furniture workshop?called Thaikea.
?I got really good at stucco,? Poelman said. ?If law school doesn”t work out, I could always go do stucco.?
Poelman said every project is different, and that relief efforts require more hands, while teaching and training efforts ? like this summer?s projects ? require a different kind of commitment, but a smaller number of volunteers. In Ghana the number of volunteers is limited also because students are staying with enough families in the village.
More information about the projects and applying is at the www.empoweringnations.org. Earning academic internship credit is a possibility, but not required. Poelman said he has raised money for all his humanitarian trips by writing letters to friends and family, racking up individual checks of small sums.
?I just say, ?I?m in college now and I?m able to go, I?m mobile and I have the time and energy,?? Poelman said. ??You on other hand can?t, because you have a job and family, but maybe you have more financial resources. If we pool our resources, we can accomplish great work together.??
Woodworth, who now serves as chairman of Empowering Nations? board, said he wants all his students to not put off serving others.
?You students are not having an experience on this big beautiful campus, with all your access to knowledge and technology just to go out and make a bunch of money, have a minivan, a nice house and an Irish setter,? Woodworth said. ?You are here for reason.?
Empowering Nations Director Sarah Carmichael, a graduate student in comparative and international development of education, said being involved with the organization gives her hope, that she can make a difference in the world.
?Even though I”m one person, I can do something to help someone,? Carmichael said. ?When you go and help other people you see the looks in their eyes of gratitude that you actually think they are important enough to give up your time and money. It?s very humbling.?
School Supplies Auction:
Thursday at 4 , 251 TNRB
Donate crayons, workbooks, pencils, etc.
Each donated item earns play money for bidding on prizes
Volunteer Information Meetings:
April 6 at 7 p.m., 120 TNRB
April 11 at 7 p.m., 284 TNRB
