College Students Teach Health Ed

According to Peer Health Exchange statistics, one in four American teenagers is a binge-drinker, one in four smokes cigarettes, one in five sexually active teenage girls becomes pregnant each year, one in five teens experiences violence in a relationship and one in six is overweight or obese. Budget cuts have eliminated comprehensive health courses in many public high schools, leaving teenagers to face these health risks unprepared and alone. In 2003, Louise Davis and Katy Dion co-founded Peer Health Exchange to aid teenagers in high schools that lacked health education to make healthy decisions regarding sex, drugs, drinking and more issues that are growing concerns in the United States.

Peer Health Exchange trains college students in four urban areas (New York City, Boston, San Francisco Bay area and Chicago) and prepares them to teach one of twelve workshops. The college students travel to different schools in their city, holding workshops in the homeroom periods of ninth grade classes. The workshops are interactive and easy to comprehend for ninth graders and the benefits of the peer education are far-reaching.



In observing a session on sexual assault and rape, I noticed that the initial questions asked of the students revealed the underlying need for such a program. About 80 percent of the students responded “yes” when asked if sexual assault was ever the survivor’s fault. Over the course of an hour of acted-out scenarios and question-answer sessions with the group leaders, each student came to understand that this belief was unequivocally false. After the session, I asked Lloyd, a 14-year-old from the class who had answered “yes” to the question, what he learned from the class. He responded, “That rape is never the girl’s fault. You have to ask if it’s okay, and that if she doesn’t actually say ‘yes’, it means ‘no.’”

Reaching out to those in need

A team of college kids wakes up before sunrise to prepare for the day. Breakfast is served at a local church and then they’re off to work. Soon, you can hear the sound of hammers pounding on a roof; kids laughing as they run into each other’s linked arms, playing red rover; a relieved sigh as a client walks out of the thrift store with bags of free food and clothing. These are just a few sounds you would hear if you spent twelve weeks at Appalachian Outreach, an organization located in the Appalachian Mountains of Jefferson City, Tennessee.

Appalachian Outreach was founded in 1984 in association with Carson-Newman College. From its beginning as a home repair organization, it has expanded to serve people who are in need of food, clothing, linens and household items. An estimated 600 clients came in and out of Appalachian Outreach in June 2009.

In order to help these 600 clients plus the home repair clients, Appalachian Outreach hires college students to work for twelve weeks. Some students are from Tennessee’s Carson-Newman, and others come from states such as Illinois and Mississippi. Many of them work on home repair projects for the summer, including roofing, tiling and landscape.

Michelle Shackleford, then a Southern Missouri student who has since transferred to Carson-Newman student, didn’t know much about home repair but was excited to learn. She wanted to make an impact on someone’s life. “I was given more opportunities to love people as they are, as we were in their homes and spending more time with them, getting to know and love them as people,” Shackleford says.

15 Years

This photo essay was submitted by photographer Simon Sticker

Remembering Javier

I wanted to let NEED readers know that I was recently informed of some very sad news.

In NEED magazine issue 5 I wrote a story entitled “In the Crossfire” about an organization called Youth ALIVE! working with youth in Oakland, California. Yesterday, a member of the Youth ALIVE! staff contacted me and informed me that on August 31 of this year, Javier Carreto, one of the young men who was featured in the story, was shot and killed. I know next to nothing about the circumstances surrounding his murder, but I can tell you about meeting Javier.

Javier was the first young man I talked with in East Oakland. He was very eager to tell me everything that was on his mind. For every question I had, he had a thousand things to say. When he spoke, it seemed he felt surrounded by the constant violence that was part of the gangland mindset of youth around him. He was visibly frustrated with the insecurity he felt walking in the street and the tension that he felt at home. In spite of all that he dealt with, what Javier said to me showed he was an insightful young man who genuinely cared about those around him. He was eager to tell me about his new commitment to studying hard in school and the help that he received from Youth ALIVE!. Javier was proud of his GPA and the hope that he had through his education.

The loss of Javier had a profound impact on those around him. I know the staff at Youth ALIVE! are taking this tragedy very hard, especially Javier’s former mentor, Fabian Martinez. Javier spoke very highly of Fabian. In the interview, Javier said, “For me, he’s much more than a friend; I can tell you that. He’s way more than a friend. I have his trust; I have everything. … And Fabian did change a lot of my life. He did, and even though I am still okay, he’s still here. And he told me, ‘even though I not still working with you, I’m always here for you.’ And I like that.” I met Javier for a day, but Fabian was there nearly every day of what would be the last few years of his life, helping him choose a different path and become a better person.

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Documenting Voluntourism (Part II of II)

In this episode, documentary producer Trent O'Donnell was sent to Nepal to capture the essence of a World Expeditions voluntourism trip. He joined 13 travelers on a trek into one of the most remote parts of Nepal. During their stay they refurbished the Saramthali school and repaired a retaining wall that were constantly threatened by the harsh climate of the Himalayas.
This is a story of traveling with a purpose and the effect it has on all people involved.

Positive Footprints - Nepal from WorldNomads on Vimeo.

Positive Footprints
Footprints Network
World Expeditions

Communities Given the Chance to Fly

A group of women opened a clinic in Kenya this year. The clinic belongs solely to those women, and the clinic serves approximately 20,000 Kenyans entirely under their direction.

After one of the women died of cholera, funeral services were provided for the family by an organization called Give Us Wings, which had worked with the women for a number of years to get the clinic off the ground. After speaking with the widower, the organization helped with funeral costs and paid for the coffin. If the family had paid for the coffin themselves, it would have depleted nearly all of their resources.

Because her mother was deceased, the daughter of the family would now have to spend hours each day collecting water, causing her grades in school to fall. Without education, she could not hope for a better future. Give Us Wings hired help for the family so that the children could stay in school and focus on their studies, relieving them of the burden of domestic duties.