Students from Elsa High playing football tonight under the watchful eye of “Uncle Ho” Chi Minh in Vietnam.
Header to Uncle Ho !!
Author: Cosmic Volunteers
Elsa High at the Cu Chi Tunnels
The Elsa High students visited the Cu Chi Tunnels today.
The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Củ Chi district of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The tunnels were the Viet Cong’s base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968, serving as hiding spots during combat and as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for soldiers.
Elsa students sat through a brief lecture of the tunnels, then toured the grounds where they saw an actual American tank from the war, entrances to the tunnels, and exhibits describing how the Vietcong made weapons.
The students also had the chance to descend into the tunnels themselves. Although these tunnels have been modified for tourists, anyone who has crawled through them can attest to how intimidating the experience is, with the extreme heat, humidity, and claustrophobic feel.
Marcus inside an entrance to the Cu Chi Tunnels
Yuval descends into the tunnels
"Which way to Hong Kong??"
Elsa High at Sunflower Orphanage in Vietnam
Our group of 14 Elsa Highs students arrived at the Sunflower Orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City this morning for their first day of volunteering.
There were understandably some nerves on both sides — from the Elsa students as well as the girls at the shelter — but after introductions and some group game playing, the atmosphere quickly turned to fun and learning about each other.
Introductions at the shelter
Playing games at the shelter
Girls from the shelter playing games
Say "cheese"!
…How great I thought Cosmic Volunteers was…
From: <------@aol.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 11:10 PM
Subject: Re: Thank you for the link
To: info@cosmicvolunteers.org
Hello Scott,
Looks good. Thanks for everything. I recommended Cosmic Volunteers to a lady at work today. Her son is looking to volunteer. I don’t know anything about him or his background, but I told her how great I thought Cosmic Volunteers was. I’m always telling her when I get updates from my daughter Shane [in Ghana].
Take care,
Steve
Enriching life experience with the Kenya Wildlife Service
From: Anne <-----@computertraining.com>
Date: Mon, May 25, 2009 at 3:48 PM
Subject: re: Nicole
To: info@cosmicvolunteers.org
Nicole is having a wonderful time and a very enriching life experience with the Kenya Wildlife Service. I would like to thank you for making this possible.
Thanks,
Anne
Nicole at her volunteer placement in Kenya
Twinrix® Vaccination for Hepatitis A & B
Twinrix is a combined hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccine to be used in adults, adolescents, and children between the ages of 1 and 18 years. Since many of our volunteer get these shots, this combined vaccination might make things easier and cheaper.
Rachel Eilbott in Ghana
Rachel, a junior in high school from Arlington, Virginia, volunteered in Ghana in the summer of 2008:
Volunteering in Kpando, Ghana this summer is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. My two friends and I had signed up to volunteer at an orphanage, but a few days into our stay the school down the road asked if we could help teach. We all love working with children, but were nonetheless nervous to be teaching, as we had never had any formal training.
Teaching at the school, however, ended up making our trip even more meaningful. While most of the children at the orphanage were at school, we were able to be useful in a school as well. I had the youngest class, the preschoolers, and they were absolutely adorable! I was introduced to the class as “Sister Rachel,” although I quickly became “Sista Rachie” to the kids. I taught them songs like “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” and we played “London Bridge is Falling Down.” The kids even taught me some Ewe, the local language spoken in Kpando.
After school, we would have lunch and then head over to the orphanage. There, we played many games with the youngest children, their favorite being the one where each of my friends picked one of them up and we chased each other in circles. We also helped tutor the older children, played many games of soccer, and read them stories.
When I returned home from my trip, I decided to start a school supplies drive for the school children. While teaching, the classrooms were basically barren except for desks and a blackboard. The preschoolers didn’t have any crayons (and what would preschool be without crayons?), and older children also lacked necessary supplies such as spiral notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, etc.
The Arkansas Traveler
Company provides students volunteer opportunity over winter break
By Jordain Carney
The Arkansas Traveler
December 8, 2008
Cosmic Volunteers, a non-profit American-based company started by Scott Burke in 2000 in Philadelphia, offers students the opportunity to spend two weeks of their winter break participating in an international volunteering program.
The trip for this year begins Dec. 28 and ends Jan. 10, 2009. The company also sends people to volunteer and intern at schools, newspapers, hospitals and other facilities in various countries.
It started in Nepal, where Burke was teaching at the time, but in the past eight years students have spent two weeks in countries such as Ecuador, Kenya, India and Vietnam, and according to a news release by Cosmic Volunteers, the trip allows volunteers to participate in humanitarian and environmental projects.
This year, students will be traveling to the Volta Region in the eastern sections of Ghana, and “the projects involve spending time with children at orphanages playing games, arts and crafts and sports, as well as planting trees, cleaning-up school grounds and light construction work of schools and medical clinics,” according to the news release.
The cost of the program is $1,895, which includes food, accommodations, airport transport, local transportation, orientation, the volunteer project, cultural excursions, visa support and other things. It does not include airfare, visa fee, vaccinations, extra sightseeing or amenities such as the Internet or telephone calls. But volunteers can have the program paid for if they can recruit 10 volunteers to the program, and they can also have their international airfare covered if they can recruit 15 other members to join the program.
Volunteers for the program come from the United States, Canada and Europe, and, according to the news release, special skills or experience are not needed to travel with the company.
“Just an open mind and desire to reach out to those in need in non-Western countries,” according to the news release.
UA students can visit the Web site for the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement for information on various volunteering opportunities. While places like the Butterfield Trail Village, The Child’s Christmas Train and The Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Washington County needed volunteers for the first week of December, there are still plenty of volunteering opportunities available to students who are interested in volunteering over the upcoming break.
The Fayetteville Senior Activity Center is making care packages for the holiday season, and volunteers also are needed to deliver the items. The Arkansas Support Network is collecting items for Christmas baskets through Dec. 14. Life Source International needs 10 to 20 volunteers on Dec. 20, Dec. 22 and Dec. 23. For more information on these volunteer opportunities and to find ongoing activities, visit the CLCE.
Whether UA students will actually volunteer while not in school seems to be a mixed opinion.
“I plan to ring Salvation Army bells whenever I get the chance,” UA student Mary Smith said.
Not all students are as eager; both UA students Sarah Dollard and Brittany Rodgers said they did not plan to volunteer over the winter break.
However, plenty of opportunities are available throughout the area.
Ghana’s Daily Struggle for Water
The BBC has a story today on the lack of clean water in Ghana.
A large part of the population in Ghana still doesn’t have access to clean water. Some of the poorest Ghanaians pay a quarter of their income on purchasing it from private sellers.
If you have spent any time in Ghana, you have undoubtedly seen locals carrying containers of water, even in the capital city Accra.
The BBC talks about Maamobi, 23-year-old Abiba and her sister, Wasila, who is only six. They walk three miles every morning to fetch a gallon and a half of water.
Ten years ago, when the idea of privatising Ghana’s water system was first proposed by the World Bank, local activists were alarmed. Fearing a profit-seeking company would raise the cost of water for ordinary Ghanaians, they formed the Campaign Against Water Privatisation.For five years a fierce public debate raged.
Then the World Bank and Ghana’s government adopted a compromise.
A private company, Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL), was given a contract to manage the existing system, while the responsibility for improving and expanding the infrastructure remained with the government.
Still, Alhassan Adam, from the Campaign Against Water Privatisation, says since then the situation has only got worse.”If you talk to any water consumer they will tell you the water crisis is getting worse and worse, especially in the big cities where Aqua Vitens Rand are managing the water system,” he says.”We are seeing the water system collapsing at a faster rate than when it was under public management.”
The population of Ghana’s cities is growing rapidly as people move from rural to urban areas in search of a living.
The World Bank estimates half a billion dollars would be needed to resolve water supply problems in Accra alone, with another half a billion at least for the rest of the country.
Time will tell if the water situation in Ghana improves.
