Campus group takes on epidemic

Drought, famine, AIDS, war.\nAll problems common to Africa. Every day 7,000 people in Africa die from AIDS, and 10 percent of those victims are from Kenya alone. \nDespite efforts by non-government organizations to establish AIDS awareness programs, the continent is still largely reliant upon international relief and development groups to help lead the way. \nOne such organization, Outreach Kenya Development Volunteers, was founded three years ago at IU by former students Hank Selke and Philip Roessler. Both had spent time in Kenya and met through a mutual interest in the AIDS epidemic, illiteracy and economic stagnation in Africa. They said they believed effective AIDS relief and development programs were sorely lacking and felt a more focused approach to the problems was required.\nBut Selke said the foundations of the organization were laid earlier than that. It began when he first traveled to Kenya and met Reverend Reuben Lubanga in the summer of 1998.\n"I often found myself wondering, 'How and, more importantly, why does he (Reuben) do this?'" Selke said, in regard to Reuben's routine. "But then I remembered what Reuben had been doing since 1996: Pushing his wheelbarrow with a TV/VCR/generator from village to village, relentlessly educating his people about AIDS."\nIt was that kind of ethos that proved inspirational for Selke and set the stage for OKDV, which uses similar efforts to educate the people of Kenya about AIDS. \nCurrent co-director Kunal Desai said a total of 15 IU student-members have volunteered to go to Kenya in the past three years. They stay with a host family in Bungoma and participate in the teach-ins.\n"We try to implement developmental projects focusing on three areas: AIDS education, working with women's rights groups and increasing literacy," Desai said. "Our primary concern is AIDS education since it is the reason for many of the economic, social and education problems."\nIndeed, the consequences of AIDS are felt by more than just the public because the socio-economic effects are more damaging in the long run.\nThe majority of infants who contract the virus at birth do not live long enough to go to school, while those children who do go to school usually end up dropping out to help support their families or ill relatives, according to the Web site www.bewareofaids.org. The impact on businesses and farms is a drop in productivity due to absenteeism or death.\nFurthermore, the Web site said that businesses must pay for staff recruitment, training, etc. before hiring employees, only to lose them a short while later and have to pay funeral expenses. \nOKDV said by increasing awareness about AIDS and encouraging safe sex, they can reduce the number of people affected, which will have a positive knock-on effect for other afflicted areas. \nDesai said in order to implement education and development programs, OKDV works in collaboration with Intercommunity Development Involvement, a non-government organization in Kenya, to organize teach-ins at schools, youth clubs and churches in an effort to increase AIDS awareness. \nCollecting books to help set up public libraries is one of the ways OKDV is involved in helping to increase the number of literacy programs. \n"During June 2001, we helped build the first Public Library, provided three women's groups with five sewing machines each and helped build a pre-school," Selke said. \nOKDV also works with AIDS organizations (other than ICODEI) to help pool their energies and resources. Desai said being an organization that survives on the donations of supporters, government grants and various fundraising activities, it is vital that its resources are used effectively.\nOne of four students who went this past summer to Bungoma, a town in Western Kenya, was Sarah Cahillane. \n"We helped our host family turn their farm into an organic farm," she said. "By helping them in this way, they become more self-sufficient. This is what OKDV is trying to do, but on a much larger scale."\nOKDV also works with women's groups, providing them with physical capital to help them start their own businesses, Desai said. By encouraging unity and consolidating the various women's groups within each community, the organization hopes to stimulate development more rapidly than several groups working separately would be able to. \nThis summer OKDV will be working with Humanitarian Medical Outreach and another medical group to build a clinic. \nDesai said he is proud of all of the organization's achievements.\n"We speak to 6,000 or 7,000 people each summer," he said. "In total, I'd like to think that we've reached a total of 20,000 people in the last three summers"