On April 8th, 2014 Dr. Michele Barrett-Ross came to the Honors monthly meeting to give a presentation on her volunteering work she had done outside of United States. Dr. Michele, a veterinary, received her vet degree from Cornell University, and currently works in upstate New York. She had volunteered overseas in Tanzania. She explained her journey and experience in Tanzania in the presentation.
Dr. Barrett was not giving her dream to visit Tanzania to serve the community. So during her graduate school she started looking into various volunteer organizations. She came across an organization called Global Volunteers, and that was her first step towards her dream. Her journey started from Dar es Salam, with no luggage. She never received her luggage on the airport.
After reaching Tanzania, she was startled to see the difference between the two countries, United States and Africa. On one there was a fully flourished, nourished and educated society (United States) and on the other side there was Tanzania, with no meaningful recourses. On reaching Tanzania, the volunteers were divided into groups and allotted tasks as per the need of the area.
Dr. Barrett was assigned with the construction team. They had to build a building upto its roof starting from the base. She also mentioned stories and happenings with her during her stay at Tanzania. She mentions a story were a African kid sees her and starts crying as he had never seen a white person in his entire lifetime. She continues, and says that things that are ordinary and usual around different parts of the world are actually not even existing for certain people in certain parts of the world.
During the QnA session one of the students asked her the cost of the trip and how much should one expect to have before they plan an oversees volunteers work? To which she replied about $5000 to $6000 for about 4 week trip. It is a quite a lot of money for some people, but at the same time there are people like Dr. Barrett who are doing everything possible to give it back to the society.
Before ending her presentation Dr. Barrett mentioned how important it was for us (people with resources ) to go and help out the needy. She also said that, volunteer and gong oversees didn’t necessarily need a vet degree. For her it was one of the most memorable events of her life. Also, globalizing and good deeds not only in ones vicinity but beyond ones reach is definitely appreciable.