Thursday, October 23, 2008
Megan O’Malley didn’t know when she traveled to South Africa last summer that two girls she met would die from AIDS before she returned to the United States.
O’Malley, Overland Park senior, traveled across the world to work with the AIDS Haven in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, through AIESEC, an international student exchange organization. The focus of the AIDS Haven was to counsel children and adults with AIDS, to educate those who live with someone that had AIDS and to educate children with AIDS. The Haven also provides support groups for those affected and creates on-going staff education in handling death.
O’Malley said the two girls — Siphokazi, who was nine, and Sisipho, who was four — were the two children in the orphanage who most looked up to her. She said two more children were brought in to fill vacancies at the orphanage immediately after Siphokazi and Sisipho died.
“It fluctuates so much, sadly,” O’Malley said. “No one should ever have to attend the funeral of a child.”
To help raise awareness for the AIDS epidemic in Africa, AIESEC will sponsor an event, “Explore Africa,” for the AIDS Haven at 7 p.m. this evening at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave.
AIESEC, the world’s largest student organization, sends 4,500 students each year to work in different countries around the world and the organization is present at 1,100 universities in more than 105 countries.
Marley Parsons, vice president of events for AIESEC in Kansas, the University of Kansas chapter, said that once a month the group sponsored Global Village events, such as “Explore Africa,” that focus on different countries. She said people from different countries set up tables with pictures, clothing and food.
“They just talk about their culture and represent all different aspects of their country,” Parsons said.
She said different organizations also attend the events. This evening, Kansas Africa Relief, or KAR, UNICEF, Peace Corps, Oxfam and KU for Uganda will attend the event. Parsons said the countries that would be represented this evening were Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Senegal, South Africa, Ghana and Ethiopia.
Parsons said the events focused on demonstrating different aspects of countries’ cultures.
“There’s another side to Africa,” Parsons said. “Sure, there is famine, war and AIDS, but there are other aspects to Africa, too.”
O’Malley will speak about her experience in South Africa this evening at the event.
O’Malley said that her trip was something she would never forget. She was inspired to join AIESEC from reading about Africa in a political science course.
“When I found the AIESEC Web site, it was like a dream come true,” O’Malley said. “The internship was such a good opportunity and the organization just led me straight to it.”
O’Malley, who lived in an AIDS orphanage for two months in South Africa last summer, said 35 percent of people in South Africa had HIV. She said 20 to 30 children, who ranged from one week to 10 years old, stayed at the orphanage. AIDS had affected all of the children in some way. Some had parents who died from AIDS, while others had contracted the virus themselves.
While in the South Africa, O’Malley said she visited classrooms of students ranging from first through 12th grade and spoke with them about AIDS.
“It’s a difficult message to convey,” O’Malley said. “Not only with applying the message to the age group you’re speaking to, but also because there’s a certain stigma about it there and most people don’t like to talk about it.”
Beverly Mack, professor of African studies said it should be a requirement for all students to go to a foreign country.
“We are so insulated,” Mack said. “Students don’t know anything about Africa, Israel, the Middle East because we are totally absorbed in our own life culture, which is a dangerous life.”
Mack said the University should expose students to disciplines and cultures that were different from their own. She said the point of education was to open our minds.
“And you can’t do that if you focus every conscious thought on our own culture,” Mack said.
Mack said the personal, social and governmental rewards would be tremendous if students would just go outside of their own country.
— - Edited by Jennifer Torline
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