Club sells bracelets for Uganda

in NEWS by

 By Emma Zaremba

Features Editor 

     Simple, woven hemp bracelets continue to weave wishes for the people of Bethlehem, Uganda.

    This week, St. Bonaventure’s Embrace it Africa organization has been selling woven hemp bracelets in the Reilly Center. The sale will continue today from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

   Each bracelet, priced at $2.50, will help buy school supplies and improve the living environment for the people of Bethlehem. With the purchase of any bracelet comes a personal story of one of the Ugandan children or teachers that will be helped by this project.

Junior physics major Tayler Clark explained how elementary-aged students involved in the Bona Buddies program made all the bracelets for sale.

    “We contacted Embrace it Africa as a program for Bona Buddies,” Clark said. “Both Bona Buddies and Embrace it Africa thought it would be good to work together.”

    Clark described the large number of people who helped create the bracelets.

    “60 mentors (Bona’s students) and 60 Bona Buddies helped with the bracelets,” Clark said. “The kids loved to help, and they even got to take home their own bracelets.”

     Members of Embrace it Africa put together other activities for Bona Buddies so they could understand the Ugandan culture and its people, according to Clark.

    “They taught the kids about games and dance in Uganda, and they showed the kids videos of their (Bona’s students’) experience in Uganda,” she said.

    Clark discussed how well the program went and what the kids in Bona Buddies took away from the experience.

    “It was an enjoyable experience, and seeing the kids dance was very cute,” Clark said. “The kids thought it was cool that they were helping the kids they saw in the pictures and videos.”

Sophomore accounting and finance major and leader of Embrace it Africa Andrew Pohlman shed light on the organization’s intention.
“One of the biggest things we try to do with Embrace it Africa is to make it clear to everybody in the group that you don’t have to do something crazy to help other people,” Pohlman said. “Everybody has the skills they need to really make a difference in someone else’s life. Even the younger elementary school kids have the skills to make bracelets and make a difference.”
Pohlman further explained how Embrace it Africa connected with the southern community of Bethlehem, Uganda and why.
“This area of Uganda that we work in is kind of notorious for being known as the breakout point for HIV in Africa,” Pohlman said. “Around 30 percent of the population has HIV. Many people who are our age aren’t fortunate enough to have parents, so they often have to live with their aunts and uncles in a (packed) house with a ton of other kids. A few years ago, we got in touch with this orphanage, and we’ve been working with them ever since.”
Aside from the bracelet project, several other projects fill up time throughout the year, according to Pohlman.
“We have a sponsorship program where someone in the U.S. sponsors someone over there,” he said. “We have a microfinance program where we actually give out small loans to the people in Uganda and there’s a sustainable food project where we purchase a piece of land and farm that land.”
Pohlman gave a detailed example of one success story for the organization.
“We gave one lady $150 to start a banana pancake business and (with that) she was able to buy the materials in bulk,” Pohlman said. “After she was able to buy the materials, she was able to purchase a lot of livestock, which with all the money she saved was then able to go back and get a college degree.”
Since its creation, Embrace it Africa has worked as a branch off Entrepreneurial Action Us (ENACTUS). Pohlman said many of their projects, including a current one, are collaborative.
“One of the most unique projects there is right now is with ENACTUS,” Pohlman said. “There’s a group that has been putting together science kits that are being sent to Haiti as well as Uganda. They are pre-packaged science kits to give to the teacher and use in classrooms.”
Each summer, a group of Bonaventure students travels to Bethlehem, according to Pohlman.
“They (the students) get to see the community that they do all these things for all year,” he said. “They can go over there and see all the changes and the results of their work.”
Pohlman shared how this year’s group will get to deliver the pre-packaged science kits themselves.
“One of (the people) going on the trip is a childhood studies major, so he’s going to take these kits and actually bring them into the classrooms and teach the kids,” Pohlman said. “It’s cool because we have a whole group of students here who are working on this project that’s really going to make a direct impact over there.”
Pohlman said this will be his first trip to Uganda.
“I’m really excited,” Pohlman said. “The organization has done a trip every year in the past, but this is the first time I have had the opportunity to go. We’re going for three weeks at the end of the summer and will be preparing a lot of stuff for future projects.”
Pohlman expressed his excitement after hearing from other students how great the experience is each year and watching videos of them arriving at the school in Uganda.
“The kids line the entire street just waiting for us to come,” Pohlman said. “The amount of time we’ve been working there and the relationship we’ve built with this one community is awesome.”
This summer, four Bonaventure students and one founder of the organization will travel to Africa. There are about 30 students involved in the organization now, which has grown and changed since its birth, according to Pohlman.
“Over time it has developed into (teams),” he said. “In the past, it was more like a lot of the kids in the club worked on one project, but what we saw to be more effective and (what has) made it better for everybody is to have these projects that are specialized and allow (students) to do what they want to do.”
Pohlman reiterated how easy it is to make a difference, even through a small act such as crafting a bracelet.
“I feel like a lot of times people see working for a group like this or a charity as something that’s (just) work, but we want to make it something that everybody enjoys,” Pohlman said. “(It should be) something that’s not only beneficial to everybody over there (in Uganda), but something that you like to do in the process.”​