Goal: $1,095

$1,095 raised so far,   CONGRATULATIONS! Fundraising Deadline: 10/19/2009

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you so much for considering supporting me in my efforts to volunteer in Tanzania with Global Volunteers in January 2010.

Global Volunteers is a nonprofit organization that offers short-term volunteer programs in nearly twenty countries around the world. Global Volunteers has been serving Pommern, Tanzania since 1987, which is one of the most devastated regions in one of the most impoverished countries in the world. It is in the bottom ten percent of the world’s economies in terms of per capita income, and 36% of the population lives below the poverty line.

Patients may walk for hours to seek health care at the clinic in Pommern, where I will be serving. As a premed student, I will be shadowing doctors and nurses in their efforts to provide basic public health services with the possibility of outreach work in nearby communities. With such high infant mortality and poor health care access, Global Volunteers’s doctors and nurses work around the clock to provide a full range of health needs. I will be assisting the nurses and doctors with patient examinations and possibly holding public health education classes. Also on the team going to Tanzania will be volunteers building houses and school buildings as well as teaching English. We will be staying at a mission house and will be enjoying most of free time experiencing the culture of the town. Our team of about thirty spread across the different projects will be serving for three weeks from Jan 2 to Jan 23.

Global Volunteers has truly made great progress in their 22 years of service of Tanzania. Pommern Secondary School, which opened in 1989, with the goal of educating 380 students, now houses over 900 students and 55 teachers, and the Pommern clinic has now served more than 20,000 people.

My passion for medicine and helping others is my main motivation for serving in this way. Being able to see the challenges faced everyday by people in different cultures and with different lifestyles than my own will really change my outlook on medicine and life in general. Volunteering abroad is something I hope to continue doing when I become a doctor and getting to start so early is amazing. An experience like this will truly be life-changing.

I absolutely understand what a hard time this is financially for everyone, but I am so thankful for you even considering helping me with my efforts. Anything you can contribute, big or small, will truly make a difference and your donation is 50% tax deductible. As a volunteer, I need to pay a program fee to cover meals, lodging, and work project materials, so your donations will provide these essential items for our team.

I am planning on starting a blog about my adventures and experience as soon as January gets closer, so shoot me an email at dchiavetta10@whitworth.edu if you would like to keep updated. Also feel free to email me with any questions as I would love for you to be involved.

Thank you so much again for supporting me in any way you can. I appreciate it so much.

~ Danielle

The miracle is this: the more we share, the more we have. ~ Leonard Nimoy