OXFORD, Miss. – When Valerie Blair, a University of Mississippi junior
from Corinth, and 11 fellow Ole Miss students landed in Ambergris Caye,
Belize, they didn’t know what to expect. But every one of them knew why
they were there: to serve school children in an impoverished area of
San Mateo.
As part of the UM Study Abroad program, the students traveled with Kim
Shackelford, associate professor of social work, to the town of San
Pedro, a popular tourist destination. There, they taught
Spanish-speaking children living on the outskirts of the island to
speak and read English.
The spring break trip made such an impact on the Ole Miss group that
several months later, they are still reaching out to raise money for
San Mateo schoolchildren with poor eyesight. The students were eager to
make a difference in the community as soon as they arrived, Shackleford
said.
“I went to Belize with 12 students I didn’t know and within a
week, I knew they were very service-oriented,” she said. “They worked
hard in a difficult situation.”
Blair, a nursing major, and Diamondhead native Rebecca Werner, a
senior engineering major, are among the students raising money to help
buy eyeglasses for needy children at Holy Cross Anglican School. Both
members of Delta Gamma sorority, they are selling calendars created by
Delta Gamma sister Christy Sims, a senior business administration major
from Madison.
Blair and Werner said one of their main jobs during the week was
to assist with screenings of students at the local eye clinic.
“We asked if we could go help because Delta Gamma’s philanthropy is
Service for Sight, so helping at the eye clinic drew our interest,”
Werner said. “We didn’t really have any introduction to people at all.
We just told them we were there to help, asked them what we could do
and told them where we were from.”
The children’s screenings concluded that 35 of them needed glasses, Shackelford said.
“Our students went with the children being sent to the clinic for eye
exams,” Shackleford said. “The students learned that even though the
exam proved the children needed glasses, the parents could not afford
to buy the glasses. One pair costs $40 if they use donated frames and
over $120 if frames are bought new.”
Blair said her experiences at the clinic prompted her to find more ways to help the children.
“Before we went on the trip, we had talked about the idea of using
Service for Sight to help these kids. I thought it was neat that the
opportunity arose and we jumped on it,” Blair said. “It was neat how it
worked out because before we left the clinic, we spoke with the
director, who told us more about the funding that comes into the clinic
for screenings and exams. That sparked our interest in continuing our
efforts after we got back home.”
Blair and Werner said some of their fondest memories of Belize
are from working with the children, including Alexis, who was upset
when he found out he needed glasses.
Blair persuaded Alexis that needing glasses wasn’t such a bad thing.
“He wasn’t thrilled about that at all,” she said. “I didn’t realize
there was such a stigma there against glasses. When he found that out,
he was sort of in denial until I put on my glasses and convinced him
that there was nothing wrong with them.”
Werner said volunteers are in high demand in the San Mateo community.
“One child I worked with didn’t have an easy time focusing; he always
got distracted,” she said. “We had to make it fun for him to learn.
It’s a lot like what our children face here. Hiring teachers is a
different process there. There is a huge need for extra help.”
Blair added that the children need more individual attention.
“One-on-one time with them seemed to make a difference because they’re
in such big classrooms all the time, and they don’t get as much
individualized attention as they need,” she said. “They’re doing well
to be enrolled in school where such a low percentage of people continue
their education past the eighth grade. There’s great need there, even
if it’s just letting someone know you care.
Shackelford said she was pleased with the effort all the students gave.
“It made them think about what service they can do and showed them that
they really can make a big difference in a week’s time,” she said.
Blair said the appreciation of the students and parents stood out most to her.
“A girl we had spent a lot of time with that week named Irene made us a
homemade card and made sure we got it before we left,” she said. “It
was just her thanking us over and over for being her friend and being
there for her. Even though we were only able to be there for four days
with her, she was incredibly thankful. For me it was seeing how
grateful they are for everything.”
Seeing how the residents did so much with so little gave Werner a new perspective.
“It’s an eye-opener to see how people who have so little have so much
because they’re so incredibly grateful and thankful all the time for
everything,” Werner said. “Just the simplest act of kindness we gave
them – hanging out with them or going to play soccer with them during
their break – meant the world to them. I think relationship-building is
something I learned. You can go anywhere, and whether there’s a
language barrier or not, you can still connect with people.”
The UM Study Abroad program and Shackelford have planned two more trips
to Ambergris Caye: a three-week Wintersession trip that is offered as
an elective social work course for all UM undergraduate and graduate
students, and a service-oriented trip during spring break 2010 open to
all majors. To learn about these and other programs, go to http://www.outreach.olemiss.
To learn more about contributing to Delta Gamma’s Service for Sight project, contact Rebecca Werner at rawerner@olemiss.edu or visit http://www.olemissdg.com.
For more information on the Department of Social Work, go to http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/