Alumni Spotlight: Elaine Andres

My name is Elaine Andres and I’m from Redlands, CA but I’m currently a fourth year at UC Berkeley. Last summer, I volunteered with Support for International change from June to August.

The minute I started college, I knew I wanted to study abroad. I had researched programs and was pretty much set on going to London for years. But I started to take courses in ethnic and gender studies, and it really made me start thinking about identities and post-colonial traumas. After that, I knew I wanted an experience that was completely unfamiliar and outside of my comfort zone. I needed to go a “non-western” country.

A friend of mine recommended SIC to me, and I was attracted to the program because volunteering in this context would be learning from experience rather than in the classroom. HIV/AIDS prevention and general sexual health interested me because I feel as if these are realities that people constantly try to keep hush hush even in more liberal countries like the United States. Growing up in a fairly conservative town, the topic of sex in school was rarely approached in a positive or even neutral light. I think this makes it difficult for people to talk openly about their sexual health, which can lead to situations that are entirely preventable.

We would typically wake up around 7AM or whenever we couldn’t stand the rooster crowing anymore. After breakfast, we would teach the first half of the school day to several grades at our primary school, have lunch, and then teach our curriculum at the secondary school. Once our school teachings were over, we would do a few community teachings. During these events, we’d reach out to village leaders, church groups, mothers groups, etc. Once it started to get dark, we would usually talk with our groups about how many people attended our teachings and how we thought our lessons went. After planning for our next day, we’d walk to our homestays, have dinner with our families, probably shower, and then call it a night.

I love volunteering with SIC because it really showed me the value of real community on so many different levels. My homestay mama was a teacher at the primary school and so our house as was very close to the campus. Sitting on our front porch, I would just get to meet and talk to new people everyday. Volunteering with SIC was also an amazing opportunity to meet other university students from all over the U.S., the U.K., and Tanzania and from various backgrounds—and it makes for good couch surfing potential.

Before SIC, I’d always been a bit skeptical about volunteer travel and international aid programs. I had misgivings about the intent and realistic effectiveness of short-term volunteers. But even in our village, and just working with SIC for just two months, I saw real changes. When we surveyed our village when we first arrived, very few families had even minimal knowledge about HIV and by the time we finished, over 140 of our villagers came out to get tested. SIC reminded me that though, it’s important to view the world critically, we can’t look at it hopelessly. Change really isn’t possible if you don’t try.