WISER

The WISER Team with Dr. Sherryl Broverman, Ms. Courtney Crosson, Andy Cunningham, and Hannah Adams visited Kenya, May 16 through May 30, 2008, with numerous goals and objectives. This visit included the completion of the land purchase with receipt of title and participation in a Land Purchase Ceremony with the Muhuru Bay community. An Engineering / Architectural firm was selected, potential construction contractors were interviewed, and relations with a representative of Johnson & Johnson’s Sub-Saharan Programs were enhanced. To further accomplish the goals of WISER , the WISER Team met with the NGO Board in Nairobi, opened a Kenyan bank account for business transactions, discussed with representatives of the Tagache clinic the potential for Duke student placement there, and distributed 40 cases of sanitary pads donated by Johnson & Johnson to the Muhuru Bay Primary and Secondary Schools. (more…)

Emily Matthews, current co-president of the WISER Duke Student Group, presented at the MIT Global Poverty Initiative Millennium Campus Conference on April 18-20 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The conference focused on student efforts to alleviate poverty and hosted other speakers such as Senator John Edwards, Administrator Henrietta Fore and Dr. Paul Farmer. Emily represented WISER in a panel discussion titled “Stories from the Field: Student Action in Alleviating Poverty.” She also presented at a poster session and led a workshop on “Starting Projects for Global Change.”