WFU students to serve the poor in other countries

WFU students Erin McDonough and Kara Johnson in Calcutta in 2003.

Four Wake Forest University student groups will spend a portion of their winter recess serving the poor and disadvantaged in other countries. This year, 47 student volunteers and seven faculty or staff advisors will travel to India, Honduras, Costa Rica and Vietnam.

Wake Forest’s City of Joy Scholars Program will take 11 student volunteers to Calcutta, India (called the City of Joy), Dec. 27 through Jan. 9 to help the Missionaries of Charity change beds, bathe patients, clean wards and feed and comfort the sick and dying.

Twelve other Wake Forest students will travel to the Lam Dong Province in Vietnam Dec. 27 through Jan. 9 with the university’s Peacework Ambassadors Program to help build a school in a poor, rural village near Dalat.

From Jan. 2 to Jan. 10, the Wake Forest Catholic Campus Ministry will send 12 Wake Forest students and one Salem College student to work with Nicaraguan refugees in Alajuelita, Costa Rica. The students will help paint a school and volunteer with children’s programs.

Ten other Wake Forest students will participate in the Honduras Outreach Project and Exchange (HOPE), which began in 1997 with the help of Honduras Outreach Inc., a private organization based in Decatur, Ga.

The HOPE Scholars will be in Honduras from Jan. 2 to Jan. 9 to work on construction projects that will help improve the quality of life in the Agalta Valley, an extremely poor, undeveloped region with the highest infant mortality rate in Honduras.

All of Wake Forest’s international service trips are student initiated and student led. The trips began in 1994 through the efforts of a Wake Forest student who had visited India, met Mother Teresa and worked among her Missionaries of Charity.

The City of Joy and HOPE trips are sponsored by Wake Forest’s Student Development office and the Volunteer Service Corps. The Costa Rica trip is sponsored by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte and the Wake Forest Catholic Campus Ministry. The Peaceworks Ambassador’s trip is sponsored by the Pro Humanitate Center and the Lilly Grant.

NOTE TO THE EDITOR: Student Flight information is below. To arrange coverage contact the News Service at 336-758-5237.

Wake Forest University’s International Student Trips
Flight Itinerary

City of Joy Scholars Program, Calcutta, India:
Depart: Dulles Int’l Airport, 9:40 p.m., Dec. 27, United Airlines 7843
Return: Piedmont-Triad Int’l Airport, Jan. 10:51 p.m., Jan. 9, British Airways 222
Contact: Tim Auman, 336-758-5017

Honduras Outreach Project and Exchange, Agalta Valley, Honduras:
Depart: Raleigh-Durham Int’l Airport, 6:38 a.m., Jan. 2, AA 459
Return: Raleigh-Durham Int’l Airport, 10:27 p.m., Jan. 9 AA 2036
Contact: Clay Hipp, 336-758-5734

Costa Rica Trip, Alajuelita, Costa Rica:
Depart: Piedmont-Triad Int’l Airport, 6 a.m., Jan. 2, Delta 853
Return: Piedmont-Triad Int’l Airport, 11:36 p.m., Jan. 10, Delta 1062
Contact: Julie Ostergaard, 336-758-4214

Peacework Ambassadors, Can Tho Province, Vietnam:
Depart: Piedmont-Triad Int’l Airport, 6 a.m., Dec. 27, Delta 853
Return: Piedmont-Triad Int’l Airport, 12:03 a.m., Jan. 10, Delta 5574
Contact: Mary Gerardy, 336-758-5229