In 'breathtaking' service-learning trip to Kenya, students teach nutrition, HIV prevention

Provided
Henry Kaweesi '11, left, discusses nutritional management while Kenyan Peter Thuku translates.

In January 2008, the Enrich: Project Kenya students who went to Africa to offer nutrition and HIV education were forced to flee the country before they completed their work because of post-election violence. This year, however: Mission accomplished -- seven Cornell undergraduates recently returned from their three-week trip.

"We were able to achieve all of our goals," said Rammy Salem '10.

Using games, activities and visual aids, the students presented an expanded curriculum on malnutrition, breastfeeding and infant nutrition, HIV, nutrient deficiencies, food safety and hygiene, and diarrhea and dehydration prevention to more than 250 Africans living in Kabula, Kenya. They also -- for the first time since Project Kenya started four years ago -- conducted a research study.

"In broad terms, the research centered on the food and nutrition status and culture of the people of Kabula," added Salem, a government major who led an ethnographic study of nutrition culture in the Bungoma region with Anshul Kumar '09. "And some of the knowledge gained from the study will directly inform the curriculum from which the group teaches its nutrition seminars," he said.

Teaching and learning, however, went both ways.

"I learned more during this trip than I can ever explain," said Jessica Heimler '10, a biology and society major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and president of Project Kenya. "It's funny because I went on this trip thinking I would be teaching others, but I think I learned more from my students. ... The trip really opened my eyes to a whole different way of life."

The most "powerful experience" of the trip for her, she added, was observing the inequality between the genders in Kenya. The service-learning trip also exposed her for the first time to government corruption and extreme poverty.

Henry Kaweesi '11, however, already had had such experiences. Raised by a single mother in Uganda "in an area severely hit by the [HIV] scourge," he made his way to Cornell as a chemistry major through a scholarship program, the United States Student Achievers Program. He applied to Project Kenya after hearing about it from a roommate, who was also from Africa. "We talked about how important it was for an African student to take part so noble a project: Educating the masses in Africa about a nutritional approach to HIV/AIDS treatment."

He said that the group prepared for the trip for six months.

"We had to fundraise, study a manuscript, take care of insurance, get visas and acquire materials, among other things," he noted. "My responsibility was to keep in touch with ICODEI, the nongovernmental organization in Kenya that we are affiliated with [and which] provided for our housing and transportation while in Bungoma."

Kaweesi said the trip was "tremendously" worthwhile. "All [the villagers] needed was information on how to best use the little they have, given the financial constraints in that part of Kenya. I believe we as a group did so well in that capacity. ... It was a breathtaking experience."

More than one dozen faculty members advised the group, and almost 10 Cornell organizations provided financial support.

 

Media Contact

Sabina Lee