Ubuntu Global Connections is leading a group of University students on a service trip to South Africa this winter from from Jan. 3 through 17, 2015. During this trip, students will stay in a rural village in the Eastern Cape Province and in Cape Town. The trip is designed for 10 college-aged participants, with two student leaders and one adult leader.
The students’ work will depend on the needs of the South African nonprofit organizations that they will be working with. It will include working in a children’s home in Cape Town, doing educational enrichment activities with teens and children, and participating in environmental projects in a coastal rural community.
The trip will also consist of educational activities such as visiting Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent much of his prison time. While staying in Cape Town, the group will also go on several leisure trips to the beach and hikes on Table Mountain. The lodging in Cape Town will include a homestay in Gugulethu township and some time in a hotel on a famous bohemian street.
Amy Gleason, the adult leader for the trip, has been leading such trips for the past six years. She stated that her favorite part of the trip is sharing South African culture with students.
“I am so excited to share my love and passion for this country and the people,” Gleason said.
This will be Gleason’s 14th service trip since 2008. She will be cooperating with a South African guide, Mike Gathercole, who has consistently co-led the trip, and also with Chelsea Tweneboah ’15, Gleason’s former high school student.
Tweneboah is part of the Young Adult Advisory Board for Ubuntu Global Connections, which is mostly composed of Middlesex Community College students who help lead trips to South Africa. She and Marcia Frimpong of Wellesley College will serve as the student leaders for the Wesleyan trip.
Tweneboah stated that Gleason helped her discover her passion for service work and for South Africa.
“In high school, I developed an avid interest on issues concerning the African continent as well as the service work on the international scale,” Tweneboah said. “My interest in service work took me to places such as Maine and the Dominican Republic to engage in service projects there. When Amy Gleason first went to South Africa, she really had a life-changing experience and came back and told people including myself about the trip. Amy wanted to continue her work in South Africa, so she decided to form Ubuntu Global Connections. She asked me as well as a couple of interested students to join the board in which we still serve today.”
Ubuntu Global Connections is a nonprofit organization that offers educational service trips to allow opportunities for American students and adults to do volunteer work in South Africa. Through the service activities and immersion experiences they offer, the trips aim to promote connections and understandings between people of diverse cultural backgrounds. The term Ubuntu originated in the Bantu languages of South Africa and conveys the sense that people exist only in relation to others.
Tweneboah explained the philosophy of Ubuntu Global Connections and how the South Africa service trip aligns with it.
“The philosophy of Ubuntu Global Connections is that volunteers work with the people being served while learning from the experiences and views of the local people, and that the precise nature of the service to be provided should be dictated locally,” Tweneboah said. “The trips foster mutual respect as the volunteers are immersed in the local culture during their time there and have opportunities to learn about the history, traditions and customs of the culture. Through learning these things, the volunteers have a context for the challenges that are faced by the people and are in a better position to understand their needs and support their goals for improving their lives.”
Tweneboah elaborated on the mutual benefit of these service trips.
“The educational nature of these trips allows the participants to learn and appreciate the perspective of people in another culture while working with them on meaningful projects that have a lasting impact on both the volunteers and those served,” Tweneboah said. “It is our hope that both the volunteers and the people served by the volunteers leave the experience with a greater awareness of others and that they will share what they have learned with their own communities.”
As part of its mission, Ubuntu Global Connections makes grants and donations to the organizations with which the volunteers work. These South African organizations include Linawo Children’s Home, Axium Education, and Jabulani Rural Health Foundation.
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