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Women's Soccer News
Making a Difference:
A Student-Athlete's Journey to Rural Africa
Junior, Heather Walls is volunteering this summer in Africa with World Camp for Kids. She is stationed in Lilongwe, Malawi.
 As we watch the news or read newspapers, it seems as if the main stories clinching the headlines revolve around one devastation or another. Be it natural disasters, crime, famine, war or disease, the World appears to be in a constant state of peril. With Hurricane Katrina, our hearts went out to the families affected by this disaster. While some took action – packing up and heading to Louisiana to volunteer in shelters and food kitchens – others felt helpless, asking themselves what can I do to make a difference. I'm just one person . When we consider global matters such as HIV/AIDS in Africa, environmental degradation, as well as human rights (to name a few), we quickly feel overwhelmed realizing these issues are bigger than ourselves. Yet, for one young student-athlete, she was ready to roll up her sleeves to make a difference.
Heather Walls [a Junior Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major from Loveland, Ohio] is spending her summer months volunteering in rural Malawi, Africa. As a volunteer with World Camp for Kids, Heather will be sta tioned out Lilongwe (Malawi's capital). The group will be educating children about HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation (mostly deforestation), and gender equality/sexuality. Lilongwe is a hot-spot for HIV/AIDS. It has been estimated that up to 20% of the urban population is HIV positive. In addition, the Malawi National AIDS Commission reports that professionals, especially teachers and agricultural extension agents - many of whom travel between urban centers and rural villages, are dying faster than they can be replaced. The central region of Malawi is experiencing extreme deforestation and it is feared that rural citizens will have no access to wood for cooking fires, heating fires, and building materials by 2015.
With the rapid population growth Lilongwe is experiencing, government officials speculate that problems with HIV/AIDS and deforestation are interrelated. Reports have also sited the harsh Lilongwe economy as a possible reason for women and girls succumbing to unreasonable sexual demands of men and boys. Due to a combination of poverty and outdated cultural practices, young girls are often forced to drop out of school and get married to older men. In order to empower women and girls to protect themselves again infection, Lilongwe is in need of programs much like the ones being presented by the World Camp for Kids.
Accordingly, Heather and her group will spend three days per school in rural communities around Lilongwe. In that time, they will work with children and help them present to their communities the information they have learned about HIV and AIDS through skits and songs. Heather's group will also plant trees with the classes, as well as make and donate solar ovens and hand washing devices. The group will also hold meetings with the teachers of these schools in an effort to ensure continued education on HIV/AIDS as well as deforestation and gender equality/sexuality. It is the hope of World Camp for Kids that this education may slowly help to improve these issues throughout Malawi.
The program is five weeks long and also includes a four day safari. Before the group returns home, they will organize a program for orphans in Lilongwe. If you'd like to learn more about the program, please visit their website at: worldcampforkids.org.
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