WVUToday: WVU students in Ghana help raise $1,500 to build library

WVUToday: WVU students in Ghana help raise $1,500 to build library

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"Bring a Friend" Amizade Study Abroad Scholarship Program

• Always wanted to do study abroad, but uncertain about going alone? 

• Ready to make a difference, but want someone with you through the experience? 

• Amizade is offering $350 scholarships for students who take the plunge, see the world, jump into the adventure, and make a difference - together. 

Programs offered this summer include: 

• Never Again: Remembrance, History, and Genocide Prevention in Germany / Poland: 3 History, 3 Service-Learning Credits; Challenging Learning; Service to support historical landscape preservation and Holocaust Remembrance. 
• Reform and Revolution: Modern Latin American History in Mexico: 3 History, 3 Service-Learning Credits; Consideration of the last 60 years of Latin American History; Service in cooperation with local schools; travel through Guanajuato and along the Caribbean Coast. 
• Peace, Reconciliation and Identity: Literature and Politics in Northern Ireland: 3 English, 3 Service-Learning Credits; Consideration of the role of literature in shaping identity; Service in cooperation with local youth organizations. 
• Local to Global: Life Stories and the Politics of Rights in Tanzania: 3 English, 3 Service-Learning Credits; Literary Ethnography as an important technique in gathering the stories of women in rural Africa; Service in cooperation with a Women's Rights organization and a sustainable development organization.  

Taking advantage of the Bring a Friend programs is easy - simply write, "Bring a Friend: YOUR FRIEND'S NAME" at the end of the "Background Information" section of your Amizade application. You'll immediately receive the $350 scholarship against your program fee - and your friend will receive the same (for a total of $700 between both of you) when he or she indicates your name in the same way. 

We Stand for Human Rights - Amizade Responding to Uganda

As many people are already aware, the Ugandan Parliament has proposed Anti-Gay legislation that President Obama recently and rightly called "odious" and "unconscionable."  The proposed law further marginalizes the gay community in Uganda and threatens to hang homosexuals.

As a global nonprofit organization that emphasizes global citizenship and respecting all individuals' rights, we felt we had to do whatever we could to make our commitment to fundamental human equality clear. Amizade re-routed our Tanzania semester faculty and students to arrive in Northwest Tanzania via Kigali, Rwanda rather than via Kampala, Uganda. We did this because it is safer for all of our students and because we will avoid providing visa fees, airport taxes, and other incidental monies to a government that threatens to persecute a community.

Previous incidents of systematic violation of human rights make abundantly clear:

• Stand up early. 
• Stand up often. 
• Remain standing. 

Other nonprofit organizations, universities, and travel companies proceed through or work in Uganda. Frequently safari companies move through Kampala, as well as rafting companies interested in the upper portion of the Nile. If you're interested in expressing your support for human rights and ensuring your funds don't go to persecute the homosexual community in Uganda, it's time to take your business elsewhere. Spread the word. 

And of course, just as soon as the Members of Parliament who are advancing this horrible bill take it off the table, we'll be happy to work in Uganda again. Most Ugandans are kind and welcoming. And based on the Ugandans I've met, I'd bet most are - like so many people in so many countries around the world - outraged and upset by the hate-mongering some of their representatives are advancing right now. 

Let's stand against hate and for EVERYONE's fundamental human rights, together, now.