Posted: 05/02/07

International M.O.V.E.ment
M.O.V.E. at St. Michael’s college sends students to Uganda and India

Tula Florent | contributing writer
aflorent@smcvt.edu

Senior Tara Hostnik has a vision of walking across the African landscape carrying a baby wrapped on her back with cloth. In the vision, Hostnik feels completely at peace, she says.

Andrea Patterson '06 in Kolkata, India on a M.O.V.E. international service trip. (Photo courtesy of Heidi St. Peter

Hostnik is one of 17 members of the St. Michael’s College community who will be heading to either Entebbe, Uganda, or Kolkata, India, on international service trips planned by the Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts (M.O.V.E.).

The participants of both trips will be starting their trips in mid-May and spending three weeks of their summer serving the impoverished in a foreign country. Both staff and students are included in the 11 India participants and seven Uganda members.

Save the children

In their respective countries, group members will mainly be providing childcare and working on small construction projects for the different organizations and orphanages.

In Uganda, the orphanage is run by a former St. Michael’s staff member, Robert Flemming, M.O.V.E. group leader Ashley George says. George says she spent this last fall in Uganda and is looking forward to going back to The Malayaka House (www.malakayahouse.com) to visit the children whom she fell in love with.

The culture of Uganda revolves around a simple lifestyle where impoverished families struggle to make ends meet, junior trip member Dillon Klepetar says.

“The orphanage comes in when children are abandoned by parents who can’t support them,” Klepetar says.

So far, the Uganda trip has raised $5,000 for The Malayaka House, George says.

“International superpowers like the United States have largely ignored the third world,” Klepetar says. “We have an obligation to help them out and share our wealth.”

The India trip will involve much of the same work as Uganda, but with a larger variety of organizations and people. One of those organizations, Missionaries of the Word, was founded and is run by Brother Xavier who is the legal father of 175 children, says Jason Moore, Assistant Director of M.O.V.E. and staff leader on the India trip. The majority of these children are rescued from a future of prostitution, Moore says.

In January 2007, M.O.V.E. sponsored a trip to the Dominican Republic. (Photo courtesy of Heidi St. Peter)

Those traveling to India will also work with two other organizations—Mother Theresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity and The Sabera Foundation. The Missionaries of Charity sponsors a variety of homes and orphanages throughout Kolkata which group members will work at for four to five hours a day, Moore says.

It is the India group’s first time working with The Sabera Foundation, a boarding school for girls, senior trip leader Shawna Wakeham says.

In addition to individual costs, members of the India group are hoping to raise $15,000 in donations for the organizations they visit, Moore says. The $5,000 that Brother Xavier’s orphanage received last year was enough to provide five months’ worth of food to all 175 children, he says.

“The impact of the money we bring is just incredible,” he says.

Great expectations

Members of the Uganda trip are planning on visiting the marketplace in the city several times. On one of those market trips, or perhaps when the group travels from Entebbe to the nearby capital, the group will be expected to purchase goods and items to be used in future M.O.V.E. international service trip fundraising, Moore says.

For both the Uganda and India trips, events like the International Market and Spring Market raise a significant amount of money, Moore says and each group that goes on an international service trip is expected to spend at least one afternoon shopping for local crafts and items which can be bought for relatively little money in the foreign country. These items are then re-sold to members of the St. Michael’s community at a higher price, resulting in profits that go directly to the funding of future international service trips by M.O.V.E.

Further fund-raising for the trips separately included raffles, concerts, and individual letter-writing campaigns, George says.

After M.O.V.E. awarded $500 scholarships to each of the international service trip members, the India trip cost $1,835 per individual, Moore says. The Uganda trip is about $100 less per individual, George says.

“Air fare is the most expensive part of the trip,” Moore says and while Uganda participants will be staying at a hostel, India members have upgraded their lodging to a hotel. Moving from the YWCA without air-conditioning to the Astoria Hotel with air-conditioning will keep the group healthier, Moore says. He was in bed for two days on the trip to Kolkata last year when all participants became sick, he says.

Wakeham questioned even going back to Kolkata this year, but is excited about returning as a student leader this summer, she says.

Group breakdown

In places like Uganda and Kolkata where illness is likely, traffic is potentially life-threatening and political instability is commonplace, international service group members are brave, Moore says.

“There’s always, I think, risk wherever you go,” Hostnik says. “As nice as people are, you just have to look out for yourself and make sure the situation feels right.”

However, trip members have been learning since November what it means to be part of a group, Moore says. Group dynamic is important from the beginning to after the end of each trip, Moore says. The Kolkata group meets once a week for two hours, following a syllabus prepared by former trips’ groups, Moore says.

“We’ll all experience a certain amount of culture shock but we want everyone prepared for what they’ll see and experience,” Moore says.

In such a new environment, group members need to know they can trust one another enough to communicate emotions and physical discomforts, George says. Moore will guide reflections every night, he says.

“There are going to be breakdowns,” Wakeham says. “The trip is overwhelming emotionally, physically and psychologically.”

The importance of group does not fall away as soon as trip members return. Wakeham recalls having trouble adjusting to her job last summer working at a bank. The large bank accounts and money at her fingertips in the drawers made her ask questions like, “Why not donate some?” she says.

“Coming back to a routine and jobs just [doesn't] seem that important after experiencing a place like Kolkata,” Wakeham says.

The group will continue to support one another after the trip is over when friends and family members do not understand what was seen, Wakeham says.

M.O.V.E. members have the opportunity to travel to places such as India, Uganda, and the Dominican Republic. (Photo courtesy of Heidi St. Peter)

Moore often hears the criticism that international service trips aren’t about helping the organizations so much as they’re about selfish individuals, he says.

“But I believe in the long-term effects,” Moore says. “I’ve seen Kolkata transform students. And no matter what they do with their life, this experience has a ripple effect on their future.”

*Going to India are staff members Dan DeSanto and Jean Couture, seniors Becca Richard, Kelly Alper, Tate Shippen, junior Jenna Blake, and first-years Danielle Twohig and Joy-Anne Headley. The group is being lead by Jason Moore and student leaders Shawna Wakeham and Andrea Patterson.

*Going to Uganda are seniors Maggie Colacchio, Tara Hostnik, Marlene Navarro and junior Dillon Klepetar. Ashley George, class of ‘05, will be leading the trip with former director of M.O.V.E., Ann Giombetti.