Two Periclean Scholars recently returned from the African nation of Namibia, where they spent a month doing internships with the Ombetja Yehinga Organization. Details...
Rising juniors Marissa Morris-Jones, center, and Hayley Gravette, right, say they learned a great deal about the problem of HIV/AIDS in Namibia by working with the organization, which organizes and supports AIDS awareness groups in schools throughout the country.
Gravette spent her internship in the capital city of Windhoek, helping design a Web site for Ombetja Yehinga, a key tool in recruiting new financial supporters for the organization. Morris-Jones traveled to Korixas and other cities in the northern part of the country to work with youth awareness groups.
Both say boredom is a key factor in the spread of HIV and AIDS in a country where 60 percent of youth are unemployed.
“We heard a lot of kids say that they have nothing to do, so they drink and have unprotected sex simply because they’re bored,” Gravette says.
She says seeing the situation firsthand opened her eyes to the complexity of the problem of HIV and AIDS on the African continent.
“It’s one thing to hear the numbers in class,” Gravette says. “But when you get there and see for yourself how much needs to be done, it brings the reality home to you.”
Both students said one ironic result of the campaign to fight HIV and AIDS in Namibia is that many people are tuning out the messages about prevention. Morris-Jones compared it to anti-smoking ads in America.
“So many people there are sick of hearing about HIV and AIDS,” Morris-Jones says. “I’ve heard it called the ‘broken record effect.’ People know AIDS is out there, but their behavior isn’t changing. It challenges everyone to think outside the box and say, ‘This isn’t working, so what do we do now?’”
The women said they felt strongly that it is important for them to be honest with their fellow Periclean Scholars at Elon about their observations of the AIDS crisis in Namibia.
“We have experienced an insider’s view of HIV/AIDS in Africa, and as a result, we’ve taken on a completely new perspective,” says Morris-Jones. “I can make a difference by being an ambassador to my peers about what we saw.”
Elon is one of 10 colleges and universities nationwide to join Project Pericles, an initiative sponsored by the Eugene Lang Foundation, which challenges institutions to provide a learning experience that will “instill in students an abiding and active sense of social responsibility and civic concern.”