Students work on community development in D.R. over break
Gaurie Tilak
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Campus News
While most students were relaxing at home over winter break, a group of twelve Brown students was building volleyball pits and purifying drinking water in the Dominican Republic. The group consisted of eight seniors and four underclassmen, led by Ed Cheung '08 and John Molina '08.
The projects targeted issues that arise often in developing nations, including nutrition, exercise, hypertension, diabetes, environmental concerns, women's empowerment, general education, English proficiency and computer literacy. The five communities included in the project were centered around the A Mother's Wish foundation's community center and health clinic in Santiago.
Cheung said he first came up with the project idea while he was studying in Santiago, the Dominican Republic, in the fall of 2006. He volunteered at the health clinic every week, with which he got involved through Assistant Dean of Medicine Timothy Empkie.
Molina worked with the same clinic during the summer of 2007. During this time, he went from door to door and asked people what concerns they felt were important in their communities, inspiring the projects he would later work on over break. "All of our projects stemmed from the community survey," he said.
Both Cheung and Molina enjoyed their experiences so much that in September they came up with the idea for the trip, and by October they had provided applications to students interested in participating. Most of the students who went this month were interested in medicine, they said.
The group's goal was to work with community members to help them solve the problems they identified. "Our vision is not to come down and be that white hand saying, 'We know what's best for you,' because we don't," said Cheung.
Empkie helped with the logistics of the trip. "My role was primarily beforehand to help them with the preparation," he said. The project is not currently sanctioned by the University so no official approval was necessary, but one hope for the future is to develop this project into a University supported program, Empkie said.
The projects targeted issues that arise often in developing nations, including nutrition, exercise, hypertension, diabetes, environmental concerns, women's empowerment, general education, English proficiency and computer literacy. The five communities included in the project were centered around the A Mother's Wish foundation's community center and health clinic in Santiago.
Cheung said he first came up with the project idea while he was studying in Santiago, the Dominican Republic, in the fall of 2006. He volunteered at the health clinic every week, with which he got involved through Assistant Dean of Medicine Timothy Empkie.
Molina worked with the same clinic during the summer of 2007. During this time, he went from door to door and asked people what concerns they felt were important in their communities, inspiring the projects he would later work on over break. "All of our projects stemmed from the community survey," he said.
Both Cheung and Molina enjoyed their experiences so much that in September they came up with the idea for the trip, and by October they had provided applications to students interested in participating. Most of the students who went this month were interested in medicine, they said.
The group's goal was to work with community members to help them solve the problems they identified. "Our vision is not to come down and be that white hand saying, 'We know what's best for you,' because we don't," said Cheung.
Empkie helped with the logistics of the trip. "My role was primarily beforehand to help them with the preparation," he said. The project is not currently sanctioned by the University so no official approval was necessary, but one hope for the future is to develop this project into a University supported program, Empkie said.