http://media.www.fsunews.com/media/storage/paper920/news/2008/10/09/News/Activism.In.Africa-3477616.shtml
Two FSU students work to mobilize humanitarian activism on campus
Kaitlyn Suveg
Two Florida State University seniors are working to find the balance of schoolwork and humanitarianism as they initiate not-for-profit work aiding the continent of Africa.Last week, at the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Awards Symposium, these two students presented topics regarding oppression on a global scale. Rachel Rossin and Alex Merkovic spent their $4,000 in URCAA grant money and summertime energies seeking to amend such injustices in Africa, and more specifically, in the countries of Uganda and Rwanda.
Rossin, a senior at FSU pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in Graphic Design, decided to travel to Mengo, Uganda, to work with the Greenhouse Orphanage, an organization she was originally introduced to through friend and orphanage director, Kevin Kalibbala. After hearing Kalibbala talk about the orphanage's need for food, clothing, school fees and medical treatment, Rossin applied for the Office of National Fellowships' URCAA grant as a means to bring the change she felt necessary.
"The URCAA was a huge help because I was just one person trying to start this organization," said Rossin. "And although the Greenhouse Orphanage in Uganda is an NGO, there was nothing established here (in America). And so that $4,000 grant was a huge help."
The Greenhouse Project, Rossin's not-for-profit organization, is now only one month old.
She said that, originally, her desire had been to do work with orphanages in Africa and use art to profit specific orphanages, never anticipating the responsibility of such an undertaking upon her return. However, as Rossin called it, it was "a natural course of action" for The Greenhouse Project to have been catalyzed by her summer research.
In contrast to Rossin, Merkovic's prize money went into an already existing not-for-profit organization, the Global Peace Exchange. Merkovic, a senior at FSU studying Middle Eastern Studies with a focus in Africa and African history, co-founded GPE in 2006 with fellow FSU student Nick Fiore.
GPE is an organization that seeks to promote global youth participation and show students how to participate in social change. Merkovic, now chairman of the board of directors, said for them, the grant money was a benefit.
"That $4,000 benefited GPE a lot. It was able to make a pretty huge difference on our (Rwandan) construction project," said Merkovic, explaining that a typical Rwandan citizen only makes somewhere around one or two dollars in daily income.
He also said that the URCAA brought the organization good publicity, allowing students around campus to be able to see the type of positive work being done around the world through their organization.
Rossin explained the struggle of wanting to help more.
"I just want them to be okay," she said. "And it's definitely a conflict of interest when, for instance, right now the orphanage is going through a lot of financial problems and the kids, they have to continue eating, and the tuition has (risen), and so now they're not in school because they can't pay tuition. So, hearing something like that, and me being over here, being fine with my tuition, is really difficult."
For Merkovic, his time in Rwanda had a major impact on his perspective.
"I got back from the refugee camp, where I saw human misery on a scale that I can't even begin to explain," Merkovic said. "It was something that was so gripping, it is something you can never, never forget."
Peter Garretson, professor of history and co-director for the Middle East Center at FSU, was Merkovic's supervising professor for the URCAA grant. He said he considers Merkovic a "rare individual" who is both an excellent student and excellent activist.
"He really understands the third world in a way that very few students do," Garretson said. "And he's just a really rare individual."
Garretson said he believes that foreign travel is crucial to having a healthy understanding of global conflict.
"I have found that (…) students really mature when they leave the United States and see the U.S. through the eyes of another culture," said Garretson. "They start to question, they start to see what they themselves think is important versus what they've been told is important. Too many students think that people in Africa are way less developed than we are. When you go there, you see things quite differently. (You find) people your own age, people very similar to yourself."
Merkovic agreed that traveling to other countries changes your perspective and inspires action.
"There's a terrible misconception in this country that (other) countries love being on foreign aid, that's it's comfortable. It's not," said Merkovic. "The fact is, the enemy of poverty is opportunity. The only way that you can break the shackles of poverty is to give people the tools to fix it. People know how to get out of poverty, we don't need to tell them how to do so, they just need the tools. With The Greenhouse Project here, (Rossin's) project is going to be taking these (Ugandan) kids off the streets, keeping them off the streets, giving them a primary education and then giving them the tools to be able to fight poverty. That's what we're trying to do in Rwanda too."
Merkovic and Rossin have many challenges facing them, but they say that the greatest are inspiring action and cutting down apathy seemingly ingrained into students. Rossin finds her motivation to inspire change in her daily life.
"The motivation for social change and social awareness is everywhere," Rossin said. "It's a standard of just being a human and being in humanity. We're of a population that is very wealthy and is very privileged - despite the (current) economic crisis - and it's really about leveling the playing field, if you will, (and) raising the standard of living for countries that have been exploited. Africa has been exploited. It's seeing a problem and changing it, fixing it, actually doing something about it instead of griping."
Merkovic understands the struggle with apathy because it was once his own.
"For me, a big thing was having to overcome that apathy also," Merkovic said. "I think the biggest challenge in our generation isn't fighting terrorism, and it certainly isn't anything domestic. I think it's poverty. We live in an age of global inequality, but we also live in an era now of globalization. We have to understand that what happens in the Niger Delta, or, for instance, in a rice paddy in Vietnam, will have an adverse effect on us. We're slowly coming to the realization that we're all in this boat together. I feel that poverty is a more insidious enemy than anything we have ever seen before. It's a creeping, silent killer. It controls its victims not by the barrel of a gun, but through their bellies."
Merkovic also related global crisis to issues American students can relate with more personally.
"On Sept. 11, you had 2,500 people who lost their lives needlessly and tragically," Merkovic said. "Every day in sub-Saharan Africa there are 30,000 people that die needlessly and tragically because their only crime was being born into the bottom billion. It's not even just a question about injustice; it's the fact that we live in a day and age where everything is interconnected. One day the world is going to wake up and realize that this can't continue. It won't even be a question of altruism; it's going to be a question of self-interest."
For more information on The Greenhouse Project, contact Rachel Rossin at director@theghp.org, or check their Web site, www.theghp.org, which is expected to be completed soon.
Local art projects will be held throughout Tallahassee this year to raise funds and involvement is welcomed.
For more information on the GPE, contact Alex Merkovic at alex@globalpeaceexchange.org. Their Web site is www.globalpeaceexchange.org. On the site, students can check for dates and times the organization meets on campus, or students can join the organization's Facebook group.
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