Siena College students served many people in many places this summer. These students worked alongside committed communities in underserved areas of the world. The students are in the summer between their junior and senior year in the Siena College/Albany Medical College Program in Science, Humanities and Medicine.
Honduras. Arti Iyer and Taylor Burch worked in an orphanage (Hogar Nueva Esperanza) where they took care of children ranging in age from 4-12. They also spent one day a week at the adolescent woman’s home where they taught English and math. Ryan McIntyre lived at Casa Corazón de la Misercordia where he served as a positive male role model for four teenage males who were all HIV positive. He became involved in all aspects of their lives: physical, intellectual, social and spiritual.
India. Haritha Baxi split her volunteer activities between Anada Marg Orphanage and the Anada Marg Primary School. She taught English, nutrition and doing cursory health analysis of individual orphans.
Kashmir. Sobia spent half her stay at the Abbas Institute of Medical Science, which was the epicenter of the recent earthquake. She worked with a medical relief team sponsored by the Islamic Medical Association of North America. The remainder of her time was spent at the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalakot. . This was a great learning experience for her since she had a great deal of hands-on experience that would have been impossible to do in the states.
Kenya. The three women who went to Marigat this summer bring to nine the total number of students that have worked here with the Mill Hill Sisters. The site is in east Kenya near the Rift Valley. Our students worked with the Marigat Catholic Mission Mobile Clinic. They did home visits, visited outlying villages with the clinic, weighing babies and taking blood pressures. They also distributed worm medication and acted as health educators at primary schools.
Mexico. This summer was the first time we sent students to Chiapas State. They worked in Asilo de Ancianos de Senilia with elderly patients helping feeding them, giving range of motion exercises and other general activities. They were kept busy in the evenings by teaching English at the Sol Maya language school.
Tanzania. Our volunteer worked in an orphanage sponsored by the Missionaries of Charity in Mburahati section of the city of Dar es Salaam.
Uganda. Our volunteers taught physical education and English at Hope Primary School. They lived with a Ugandan family in a village and, though difficult at times, they learned a great deal by being totally immersed in the culture, lives and hardships of the Ugandan people.