While many Dartmouth students typically spend Spring Break sunning themselves on the warm, relaxing beaches of Mexico and Florida, 13 Dartmouth volunteers will instead dedicate their time to help out various humanitarian organizations in Kingston, Jamaica.
This group of 10 students and three co-directors will be volunteering through the annual Jamaica Volunteer Immersion Program sponsored by the Tucker Foundation.
The participants will be working at four main sites over the period of a week. Their activities range from helping with the elderly at Mother Teresa's Destitute and the Dying, taking care of patients at a leprosy clinic, and tutoring and playing with children and adolescents at both a primary school in Riverton City and at St. Margaret's Community Center.
"The main goal of the program is to provide an opportunity for students to understand the outside world that we live in and to introduce people to life-changing experiences," Co-Director Marcus Simpson '00 said.
Not all interested students are able to attend the trip, however. Last year, 45 students applied for 12 spots.
The selected students will leave for Montego Bay on March 14 and will return to Hanover on March 23. According to Simpson, the volunteers work each day from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon in primarily destitute and impoverished environments.
"The program really opened my eyes," Simpson said. "We meet a lot of interesting people, and it changes your perspective on what you hold dear."
The Jamaica Volunteer Immersion Program was started in 1997 by Arthur Desrosiers '99. The community service program is based on a similar program that has been operating at Boston College for the past seven years.
Although JVIP currently only offers its current Jamaica trip, the program is in a process of expansion that may lead to the addition of new countries as soon as next year.
"We're hoping to set up more programs like this in Latin and Central America," Co-Director William Meyer '02 said.
Because the JVIP is not funded by any organization, each student must contribute $800 to pay for the trip.
"We're really excited for this year's program," Meyer said. "It's just an incredible experience, and I strongly encourage students to come on the trip."
