Building Communities and Relationships
AMMAN, Jordan – Students at the School of Foreign Service on the Doha, Qatar campus used their week of spring break to learn about the ways people are working to alleviate poverty in the Middle East while also taking the opportunity to build affordable housing for a family living in one of Jordan’s rural villages.
The trip, which was part of the Service Learning program located at SFS-Qatar, allowed 11 students to travel to Jordan to meet with a couple of nonprofit organizations focusing on varying strategies to ease the weight of poverty in the Middle East nation.
“Our goal is to allow students to take some of what they learn in the classroom and see how it is applicable to the real world,” said Victoria Pedrick, associate dean for Academic Affairs at SFS-Qatar.
After arriving in Amman, the group met representatives of the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD), a nonprofit that works toward rights-based sustainable human development in Jordan, and FINCA International, a global organization that provides microfinancing to rural villagers.
“I’m really glad we got to meet with professionals from FINCA and JOHUD, especially because the different people we met with were living evidence of the range and flexibility of microfinance services,” said Louisa Aviles (SFS’09), who is a student on Main Campus studying abroad this year at SFS-Qatar.
Microfinance refers to financial services provided to low-income people, usually to help support self-employment. The services usually include small loans, savings plans, insurance, payment transfers and other services that are provided in small increments that low-income individuals can afford. These services assist families in starting small enterprises such as farming.
“It was really interesting to see how microfinance strategies can be adapted to meet different situations, and I left the meetings impressed by the extent to which microfinance has the power to alleviate poverty,” Aviles said.
After learning how the two organizations are working to further develop the Jordanian economy, the students were able to view first-hand the benefits that microfinance can offer individuals who are intent on making a comfortable living. Winkie Williamson, the director of JOHUD, took them on a tour of the Souq al Ard Saturday Farmer’s Market, where local producers bring a variety of their goods to sell to the community.
For several hours the students interviewed farmers at the market about the processes and business models they use to make their living.
From there the group went on to spend the afternoon in the Ignaya Valley meeting with two fish farmers whose faces are familiar around the Souq al Ard. The two farmers, only known to the students as Omar and Khalid, told the group how they use water from a nearby spring to raise carp that they eventually sell at the market. The business model that Omar and Khalid use is similar to that of others trying to avoid the effects of a poor economy.
Though the trip served as a learning experience for the students, it also allowed them to incorporate a bit of community service as they traveled to the village of Al Himmeh in the northern part of Jordan.
It was in Al Himmeh that they learned about Habitat for Humanity’s various projects throughout the country and where they would wind up building a home for a family in the small rural community.
“Making a hands-on difference felt so much better than signing a check,” said Kawthar Abdulhameed Ahen (SFS ’11). “It really feels like an epiphany when you realize that community service isn’t only local; the whole world is one community.”
Habitat for Humanity International works with families to build affordable housing, which is then sold to the family at cost. Families that apply for the program are required to invest hundreds of hours of personal labor, or sweat equity, into the construction of their home.
The students spent four days raising the walls of a 65-square-meter house for a widow with seven children. The mother had been sharing a one-bedroom house with all of her children and members of her extended family before being approved for a Habitat home.
Habitat relies on volunteers such as Ashley Littleton (SFS’10) to help build the concrete walls that form the exterior and interior structure of homes. “The most rewarding thing is to be able to see the reality within your work,” said Littleton. “You learn that they are not homeless, only houseless.”
As they worked on the house, the SFS-Qatar students and staff laid more than 1,000 cement blocks and prepared the structural supports that would form the cement roof.
Working on the project not only allowed the students contribute a helping hand, for many of the students, the trip to Al Himmeh helped build a sense of community and camaraderie amongst them.
“It was incredibly rewarding to build the four walls of this house, but I think the greatest thing we did was tear down the 11 walls between us students,” said Nabil Mohamed (SFS ’11). “Helping my classmates build a community here [in Jordan] while strengthening our own community is the best way I could spend my spring break.”
Source: Office of Communications
March 24, 2008
