Pfeiffer outreach
Pfeiffer University graduate and undergraduate students in two classes are interested in earning more than good grades.
They are working to demonstrate the importance of education and literacy among women and children in West Africa and Southern Asia by collecting materials and donations to support two organizations that help resolve illiteracy.
Undergraduate students in Dr. Juanita Kruse’s current events class are discussing the causes of poverty. Students identified a program that offered long-term solutions through the Room to Read organization. Kruse’s students hope to raise $4,000 to help the organization build a new library in Bangladesh.
“Room to Read was ideal in that it provides books, establishes libraries and computer labs and offers literacy programs for girls,” said Kruse, whose class adopts an international project annually. They raised enough money last year to provide 10,000 meals for Haitian children through Kids Against Hunger.
On the Charlotte campus, Soundra Simpson, a graduate student, hopes to help refugee children learn to read and earn a good education. She introduced classmates to the Victory Mission Association (VMA), a nonprofit organization based in Raleigh, committed to serving communities nationwide with educational and disaster recovery assistance. Since 2006, VMA’s mission has been to meet the educational needs of children in Liberia, West Africa. Despite some progress, a half-million Liberian children do not attend school. Two-thirds of students are taught by under-qualified teachers, according to a report by Unite for Children International.
VMA has sent five teachers to Liberia’s United Methodist College to improve their skills. The first group will graduate this spring. The organization is collecting books, desks, computers, tables and chairs for Liberian schools. It has received help from area corporations, small businesses and churches, but collections continue.
For more information about Room to Read, visit www.roomtoread.org. To make a donation for Room to Read, contact Dr. Juanita Kruse at 704-463-3137 or Juanita.kruse@pfeiffer.edu.
To learn more about VMA and to make a donation online, visit www.victorymissionassociation.org.
For more information about Pfeiffer’s class project, contact Soundra Simpson at soundras01@aol. com or 704-392-6887.