Houghton Offers New Service-Learning Opportunity in Zambia
Houghton College announced on Wednesday a new service-learning opportunity for students to travel to Zambia during a Mayterm course.
The three week course is designed primarily for education majors who are concentrating in intercultural studies. Traveling to Zambia the students will develop, deliver and evaluate a basic literacy course for orphans and vulnerable children.
Working with World Hope International, several Houghton professors went on a weeklong tour of schools and orphan trusts in the southern part of Zambia this past June.
World Hope specifically requested Houghtons help in the area of literacy development, said Associate Professor of Education Cathy Freytag in the released announcement.
During this scouting trip professors observed the work of World Hope for the purpose of determining how to match the needs in Zambia to the gifts and services Houghton students have to offer.
Ongoing dialogue between our faculty and World Hope personnel in the U.S. and in Zambia have helped us to conceptualize better the ways in which our students might work to co-develop a sustainable literacy program, which the Zambians can own and maintain over time, commented Freytag.
The trip in May 2006 will mark the beginning of a partnership between Houghton College and World Hope International in Zambia. As more information is gathered, Houghton hopes to regularly refine the program to optimally meet the literacy needs of the Zambian people.