Student Volunteers Share Experiences in Africa

By Kate Dashiell

Rustic Pathways and Believers World Outreach are volunteer groups that recruit teens and young adults who have a desire to travel and complete volunteer work. Hudson Valley student Emily Groff and Albany Academy student Steven Strait worked with the two organizations this past summer.
In Tanzania, Steven Strait worked with children, many of whom had to walk long distances to get to school.
The students he met learned material from the standard subjects, but many could not stay for the whole day as their families were waiting for them to return to work or to bring them water.
“The kids were faced with a choice,” said Strait. “When it comes to going to school or eating, most chose to eat.”
The school is unable to provide supplies to its students without assistance. Strait recalled a boy who had no paper or pencil who would lick his finger to make notes in the dust on the ground.
Early childhood education major Emily Groff traveled to Cape Town, South Africa with Believers World Outreach. Upon arrival they were assisted by All Nations, another Christian volunteer group. They worked for several hours at a preschool and at an after school program.
The school, which is located in a denser more city-like area, had been well developed. Unlike the children in Tanzania that Strait had worked with, the boys and girls had access to some supplies. Although the school system was well-developed, some of the children had difficult home situations to return to.
The area saw high rates of drug use. Every Friday when the government would hand out checks to parents of the children, police could be seen surrounding the preschools trying to prevent drug deals and violence from breaking out.
Rape is a common occurrence in the childrens’ homes.
A member of Groff’s group spoke with a social worker after learning of a boy who had been sexually abused by his father.
But the social worker’s response was, “He can be raped by people he knows, or be moved to an institution and be raped by strangers.”
Though there may still be drug use in Cape Town, and the school in Tanzania still does not have supplies, Groff and Strait know that it’s a work in progress and that what matters is how they made the kids feel.
“I learned that it’s the littlest things that mean the world to others,” Strait said after showing a video of him and a young boy named Babu playing with Strait’s banjo.
Strait plans to establish and maintain a rural community school in Zambia. Efforts are already underway. Groff will go on to finish her Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education and plans to live and teach outside of the United States.
“Teachers need to get into the children’s heart first and establish trust, [and then] they can teach,” said Groff.