Paul Johnson is a high school student from Taraba State, Nigeria. Paul has been living and attending school in Akron this year through the U.S. State Department’s Youth Exchange and Study Program. Here, he shares what he’s learned about the importance of community service, a requirement of the program.
Paul makes a presentation to his community
Why do we have to do community service? That was the question I asked myself when I was told about the YES program requirement of doing two hours of community service every month. Now, I know why we do it, and I’d love to share that with you. Check this out:
Research shows that more than 60% of successful people today have spent most of their teenage years volunteering in one way or the other. Another study shows that focusing on others or helping others provides moods such as optimism and emotions, which strengthens the immune system. If you don’t believe this, take my host dad as an example — he is around 60 years old, but volunteers in the community as much as anyone else.
We all know the importance of peace in our world today, and volunteering brings us closer to different people from different aspects of life. You find yourself working among people of different backgrounds towards the same goal. More than that, understanding the needs of the community helps promote empathy and efficacy. When put together, such little things lay the foundation for peace.
Sometimes I wonder if community service benefits the community more or if it benefits the individual (or group) doing the volunteering more. In the course of community service, you find hidden talents in you that will change your view of your self-worth. You also discover that there are local resources available to solve the needs of the community.
One of the main reasons we need community service is because it saves resources. With the current economic situation, a lot of schools and organizations are looking to cut their budgets. Research shows that the current value of a volunteer’s time is $15.39 per hour.
When you volunteer in care centers, you support families; when you volunteer to tutor, you are improving schools; when you volunteer to mentor, you are supporting youth; when you volunteer at the park, or to clean up an area, you are helping to beautify the community.
The above reasons clearly spell out the need for community service. So I challenge everyone to find time and a way to volunteer in their community.
And to YES 7 students: community service is probably the only way we can pay back what the USA and IRIS have done for us. And lets make sure we keep it up even when we go back home. Don’t let the snow stop you! I challenge you to do more than two hours monthly. You can make a difference. Every person counts.
Between January 1 – 8, IRIS’s executive director Del Christensen traveled to Tanzania for meetings and to check in on YES alumni activities.
While he was there, he delivered five donated computers from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa to the YES alumni. These computers will be used by alumni for tutoring and training programs for other youth in the country.
Christensen also met with parents of the YES students who are currently in the United States. The purpose of the meetings was to update them on their child’s progress in the program and answer any questions or concerns they might have.
Finally, he was able to observe and take part in two community service projects organized by and involving numerous YES alumni students and teachers. While the students are volunteering throughout the entire country, these two volunteer projects took place in Moshi and Zanzibar.
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Del helps plant fruit trees at Safe Haven Orphanage in Moshi
In addition to developing leadership skills in young people from Nigeria and Tanzania, the YES program instills a sense of community service and volunteerism in the student participants.
During their year in the U.S., the students are required to take part in volunteer activities in their Midwestern community and feel that sense of ownership that comes with giving to your community. It is IRIS’s hope that these students bring this volunteer spirit back to their own countries and communities and, in turn, give back to their country.
I recently had the opportunity to check in on our YES alumni students in Tanzania. They were delighted to not only show me some of the volunteer work they have been doing, but also to involve me in those efforts.
The alumni have been working on dozens of projects, both individually and as a group. Here are just three projects I took part in during the brief few days I was in the country:
Supporting orphans in Moshi
In Moshi, a community situated at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, our YES alumni students and a teacher have been assisting with two different orphanages.
Kitaa Hope Home is a newer orphanage started by Ester Kadeghe, along with her son and daughter. To date, they have brought in 12 children, ages 2 to 15. They are currently renting a home to house all these young people, but hope to begin construction of a dormitory and classrooom for the children.
When the project is completed later this year, they will have the capacity to take in as many as 40 orphans from the area. Our alumni teacher, Mary Minja, has traveled to the orphanage numerous times to deliver supplies, teach the children in their make shift classroom area and simply spend some time with them to remind them that they are loved.
The second orphanage in Moshi is called Safe Haven Orphanage. It currently houses 45 orphans and has the capability to take in up to 80 orphans. We had a special alumni project at this site — we planted fruit trees in an open area of the compound where they had a vegetable garden.
While cases of scurvy in Tanzania are on the decline, it is still prevalent (especially amongst the orphan population). Establishing these Mango, Orange, Papaya and other trees alongside a vegetable garden will help to enrich the diet of these children. A total of 19 trees were planted during a warm afternoon, and 11 more trees are scheduled for planting within the next month.
The children were so excited to help with the planting and watering of the trees and their mouths were beginning to water just thinking about the sweet fruit they will taste from the trees in about two years time.
Learning from the elderly in Zanzibar
The next alumni activity I took part in was on Unguja Island of Zanzibar.
The alumni students there have been working as a group almost since the moment they returned from America. Their most recent project was a visit to the Seblini Old Peoples Home in Stone Town.
The home’s more than 100 residents receive housing and a minimal amount of assistance from the local Department of Social Welfare. Often, this assistance is not even enough to provide them with basic hygienic needs. The alumni group purchased soap and other cleaning and bathing products for all the residents. They were delighted to receive these supplies, but even more delighted that the YES alumni decided to spend the morning just talking to them and getting to know each of them.
I had the pleasure of sitting in on these discussions and hearing the cross-generational conversations. When asked what advice they had for these young people, one resident said:
“Work hard to provide for yourself and your family, not just for today, but for years to come. At the same time, don’t forget about those around you who are not as lucky. Find time to help your fellow man, regardless of their age.”
Wise advice from someone who has seen Zanzibar grow from a quiet fishing island to a booming tourist destination.
While the growth has helped many on the island prosper, there is still a great deal of suffering. The students had a hard time leaving the old people’s home. They wished everyone well and promised to be back soon. Knowing these YES students and their determination to make their country better, I have no doubt that they will.
We don’t try to tell the alumni students what volunteer projects to take on; We simply encourage them to seek their own path of service and support those efforts however we can.
As any proud parent will tell you, the best reward you can receive from the guidance of your children is to stay alive long enough to witness their positive growth into adulthood and the important ways they touch the world around them.
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- YES alumni students chat with residents of the Siblini Old People’s Home
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- YES alumni students present gifts to the residents of Siblini Old People’s Home
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- Del Christensen, YES alumni teacher Mohamed Dau and several YES alumni students meet with the parents of this year’s YES program
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- YES alumni student and a teacher help orphans plant trees
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- Del helps plant fruit trees at Safe Haven Orphanage
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- The children of Kitaa Hope Home in Mosh
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- Ester Kadeghe, the tireless head of Kitaa Hope Home
On Christmas Day 2009, a Muslim Nigerian citizen attempted to detonate hidden plastic explosives on a Northwest Airlines flight en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan. The plane made an emergency landing in Detroit without any fatalities.
Following the incident, new restrictions were imposed on U.S travelers — i.e. restricting movement and access to personal items during the last hour of flight for planes entering U.S. airspace. These restrictions were especially focused on travelers from countries listed on the U.S.’s list of terror nations, which after the Christmas Day incident, includes Nigeria.
One of IRIS’s YES7 students (2009-2010), 17 year-old Auwal Ahmed, volunteered to share his perspective on the situation as a Nigerian Muslim. Auwal, of Bauchi State, Nigeria, is living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and attends Cedar Rapids Washington High School.
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Auwal Ahmed, a YES student studying in Iowa through IRIS
Hello everyone,
Some of us are aware of the deplorable incident that happened — a young Nigerian of 23 years of age attempted to blow up a U.S airliner that traveled from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, on Christmas Day.
It is imperative at this juncture that we write something that would help to reverse the predicaments that might be caused by this nefarious and atrocious act, which sully, vilify and drag the good reputation of Nigeria into the mud.
Actually, it does make Nigeria to be now considered as a place that harbors terrorists, and it shows Islam in the wrong way. Innocent Nigerians — businessmen, tourists, students and other peace-loving individuals like YES students — could be now victims of this event.
It is altogether proper and fitting that we must try hard to redeem our good image by displaying moral conduct and portraying the best part of Nigerian/African culture to Americans. It’s obvious that negative conceptions might creep into the minds of some Americans, and they may jump to the conclusion of stigmatizing all Nigerians or Africans with bad motives toward Americans. This is quite unfortunate!
Please! I want Americans to bear in mind that the action of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab doesn’t represent the value and virtue of Nigerians. It is just an action based on his vain desires. So please, let Nigerians/Africans not be liable for what they are not responsible for.
Another action that this incident led to is the issue of tougher passenger’s screening procedures that will be conducted for all Nigerians leaving or getting into the United States. This may cause worries and delays for Nigerians that travel frequently from Nigeria to the United States or the other way round because of business or education.
Due to the bilateral relationship that exists between the two nations, it may now turn frosty if care is not taken. However, America is not blameworthy for this because they are trying to intensify their security system to prevent any possible turbulence in the future.
This boy really gave Nigeria the hallmark of shame, and he must face the consequences by himself and not with innocent Nigerians.
I will also use this medium to uplift and extol the virtue of the YES program as something that can help to reduce problems like this. I plead with the United States government to please keep working with IRIS to prevent such problems by allowing them to continue bringing intelligent students who are ambassadors and custodians of their good cultures from Nigeria and Tanzania to continue to educate and reciprocate good African/American culture and heritage with one another. This is worth doing, because it helps create an atmosphere of understanding and eliminates racial tension between the two communities.
YES7 [IRIS's 2009-2010 YES students], this is a great challenge to us to redouble our effort in providing enlightenment to Americans and the entire world about good African cultures.
Conclusively, the world will not be in peace and harmonious coexistence will not be achieved among the heterogeneous population of this world unless we iron out our differences and agree to be bonded together by a symphony of brotherhood. With this we can achieve peace at all levels — regionally, nationally and internationally. The world is a global village where we all live.
Muna Nassor, a 17 year-old YES student from Zanzibar, Tanzania, lives in Ogden, Iowa, and attends Ogden High School. In this post, she shares about her experiences during the winter holidays.
Christmas has come and gone, and I will cherish the memories forever.
It is a tradition for American families to celebrate Christmas together as a family. My host family has a tradition to celebrate on Christmas Eve. We had a traditional meal that included shrimp, a potato dish, vegetables and bread. I cooked katlesi (Tanzanian food) for my family. My mom baked many different types of candies and chocolates that are enjoyed during the holiday season. My family shared gifts and attended church services celebrating the birth of Jesus.
In Tanzania, we do have celebrations in which we gather and celebrate together like many Americans do during Christmas. We cook special meals, and we dress in our fancy clothes. I notice several big differences between our Tanzanian celebrations and Christmas. For example: we don’t share gifts during our celebrations, and we don’t put up lights inside on trees or outside on our houses or trees. We don’t decorate the inside of our homes with holiday decorations. We don’t have snow during our celebrations or any other time of the year.
During Christmas break in America, we traveled to Colorado. We went skiing, snow-shoeing, snowmobiling, tubing and shopping. I went to ski school and found it fun but very difficult! I fell many times and found it very hard on my knees. I need more practice! Snow-shoeing was fun and enjoyable. My host mom took me snowmobiling. The mountain scenery was very beautiful and amazing. I really enjoyed the ride (although it was scary at times). Tubing was my favorite activity, and I would like to do it again.
The most surprising observation that I made in Colorado was seen in Walmart… People take their dogs everywhere! Many people had three or four dogs walking them everywhere at the same time. Dogs in American are treated like people. We have very few dogs in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
I was very fortunate to be able to experience Colorado during my visit – seeing the mountains and trying new things that I will not be able to do at home.
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- Muna with her host family
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- Snow-shoeing
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- Snowmobiling
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- Tubing
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- Skiing
Danny Laiser, a 17 year-old YES student from Arusha, Tanzania, lives in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, and attends Mt. Vernon High School. In this post, he shares about his experiences during the winter holidays.
This is a good time for me to share my holiday experiences in America since I found it very different than holidays in my country.
The holiday season in America is used as the perfect time for families to meet together and share everything they didn’t have time to share throughout the entire year. This concept is not very different from my country, but the difference comes in how they meet and do lots of fun stuff together.
I want to share what I did with my family during “winter holiday” which is Christmas and New Year’s season!! My host family has many brothers and one sister — some of them were coming from college, so I was very excited to meet them.
Since this is an athletic family, we do lots a sports, especially soccer!! I really enjoy playing with and against my other family members.
I had a Christmas choir concert, which was very fun and enjoyable for me. This was actually my first time being in a “robe.” It looked very cool to me!! I enjoyed singing American Christmas songs with my fellow students!!
Having snow during Christmas is another amazing thing I experienced in America. It is very funny to watch all the Christmas movies with snow. It is so cool!
During the holidays, I remembered my family back home — it is a time when I really could not forget how I used to be with them and have fun together, but I found the American holiday season to be even more exciting, so I found myself having fun.
On Christmas Eve, we went to church, and when we came back, we opened gifts. We only opened one gift that night and saved the rest of them to open on Christmas morning!! I was so amazed to see all the gifts my family gave to me: a new shirt, winter gloves, camera case, soccer UnderArmor and a bible with my name on it!! This was the most exciting moment of holiday season here. The new year came, and I was so excited to be in a different country for one year!!
My brothers and I made a soccer team, and we went to compete against sixteen other teams which came to the “2010 Bubble Blow-out Men’s Open.” I was very excited to play my first indoor soccer tournament in my life! We had a very good and tough team that we tied only one game and won the rest, so we were able to go to finals, and finally, we took the CHAMPIONSHIP!! This was the “Russell United” team. We received our trophies and went home. We played for a long time that day — from 2:00pm to 10 at night, so funny!!
The day we returned to school came very quickly, and I saw how days can run very fast. Still, I had to go to school even though I was not ready yet… I still wanted to go on with vacation!!
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- Danny with his friend James and his family
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- Playing games
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- Christmas presents: bible and gloves
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- Playing games with friends
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- Danny at the choir concert
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- Scooping snow
Laraba Sabtah, an 18 year-old YES student from Bauchi, Nigeria, lives in Waukee, Iowa, and attends Waukee High School. In this post, she shares about her first experiences with snow and the winter holidays in the United States.
Hi everyone,
It is my privilege to write about my experiences as an exchange student and as a YES7 student. This is my experience so far…
All my life, I’ve lived in a hot environment and never dreamed of leaving my family (much less my country), but with the help of God, I was able to.
When I first came to the U.S., I found it a kind of difficult to communicate with people in my school, family and even friends. Even in school, I found it difficult to understand my teachers. But despite all those things, I still tried my best to cope with all the difficulties.
Snow Experience
Since I was born, I have never seen snow. So the first time I saw it, I was so excited and happy. I went out to have some fun, not knowing that it would soon be very cold.
- My host mum told me how it has been so long since snow fell at that period of time (November), and I was so surprised to hear that.
- A lot of Americans never knew that I’ve never seen snow before, and when I told them, they all were very surprised.
- My host mum always advices me to wear warm clothes in order to stay warm, but sometimes, I feel like it’s not that cold… until the day it got to zero degrees and even below zero. That was when I realized that she was right in telling me all those things.
- One day, my host sister (Shelly) and I were going to school and our car got stuck. That was when I felt real cold because it toke us thirty minutes to get the car out, and if I hadn’t listened to what my host mum always told me, I would have frozen outside!
- On the sixth of January 2010 , it snowed six to seven inches in Des Moines, and I was a kind of afraid because there was a lot of wind and we couldn’t go to school for two days.
Christmas and New Year Experiences
Christmas has always been one of the best celebrations in my life, and whenever it comes to Christmas holidays, I feel so happy.
During Christmas season in my country, a lot of people travel from towns and cities to their villages, while others travel to different places in order to have fun with family members. People make a lot of things like snacks and drinks, and they also buy new clothes, shoes and other things they need for Christmas celebration. Some families buy cows, goats or any kind of animal for the Christmas celebration because people will like to come to your home and no one will be happy seeing people in their homes and having nothing to eat or drink.
On the day before Christmas, the animals will be slaughtered and cooked or fried. And on Christmas Day, we go to church, sing, dance and other stuff. After coming back from church, we go out with friends, go to a lot of places and have a lot of fun.
I was so surprised to see how American’s celebrate Christmas. It’s kind of the same because they travel to places and people come over to their homes and they make a lot of snacks, drinks and food. But it was so cold that people didn’t go any where on Christmas day! I felt kind of sad because I’m used to going out with friends on Christmas Day, but it was a kind of good experience though.
I really enjoyed the New Year celebration because a lot of people came to our house, and we played a lot of games and other things. It was fun seeing how American’s celebrate the New Year, because we didn’t go to bed early, and we waited for it to turn midnight. It was fun counting “3, 2, 1…” and waiting for the clock to strike twelve, because I’ve never done that before. I really enjoyed it!
During the week of Dec. 14, IRIS’s executive director Del Christensen traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Here are his thoughts on the conference:
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15) in Copenhagen is now history. The conference left many disappointed for numerous reasons.
Members of nongovernment organizations (NGOs), including their own United Nations Association, were kept waiting in line for hours outside in the cold Denmark winter. I was one of those UNA delegates waiting to get into the Bella Center.
Having received notification before traveling to Copenhagen that our credentials had been approved and we would only need to pick up those credentials to begin attending the conference, I was shocked to find myself waiting in line for more than 4 hours on the first day of my arrival, only to be turned away as they closed the doors to additional NGO representatives.
The second day, we came earlier and waited in line (once again, outside in the snow) for 6 ½ hours before finally making it inside the center. After another 1 ½ hours waiting in lines inside, we finally received our credentials and were informed that this was the only day we would be able to attend the conference. We made the most of the few remaining hours of the day, but you can imagine our dismay.
Thousands of people wait in line to get inside the Copenhagen Climate Conference.
By noon the next day, the total passes to NGO representatives was down to 300 total from the thousands that were there to take part in this important moment in history.
International NGOs play a critical role in the frontline implementation of changes in global policies. To exclude this important sector sent a clear message to many that COP15 was not going to be the strong follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol that the world was hoping for.
Solutions place focus on emerging, developing countries
Despite the disappointment, I do feel there were two important take-home messages from this conference.
The first point is that four countries found themselves for the first time on center stage. China, India, Brazil and South Africa have been known for some time to be growing sources of carbon dioxide emissions, but they also collectively represent a growing economic force on the world stage.
These four countries form what is now called the BASIC group. The rest of the world will not be able to craft a future agreement on climate change without these four countries playing a key role. The resulting Copenhagen Accord officially recognized the importance of those four countries and will forever include them in the negotiating table from this point forward.
The second important, yet less obvious message, is that just as with the BASIC group of countries, we need to work with other developing countries to make certain we don’t continue to make the same mistakes of relying solely on fossil fuels to power these countries.
One and a half billion people in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa still live without power. Looking both from a logistical standpoint in rural areas as well as a global standpoint, developing countries are the perfect place to implement smart-grid and distributed generation systems. These systems using many small power generating facilities using renewable energy rather than one central power supply makes better use of all renewable resources and a more stable and secure energy future for these countries.
The road ahead is a critical one. We all need to get beyond the political wrangling and see the opportunities to help developing countries accelerate their transition to efficient and renewable energy.
Let’s learn from our own mistakes and help these countries start off their energy development on the right foot. One that will be sustainable, more reliable and bring economic, social and environmental benefits to these nations. COP 15 may not have resulted in the end-all agreement, but it is pointing the entire world in an important direction.
More about the author
Christensen is the Executive Director of IRIS Inc., and has been involved with IRIS programs since 2002. He has led groups to Armenia, Georgia, Tanzania and Nigeria.
He is a past president of the Iowa Renewable Energy Association and still serves on the advisory board of that organization. Christensen also is the current president of the Ames Chapter of the United Nations Association.
A graduate of Iowa State University in Aquatic Ecology, he has also worked as an environmental consultant with local, state and international environmental groups. Prior to working with IRIS, Christensen was involved in the development, review and/or pilot testing of more than 10 different educational curricula and programs.
In addition to his work with IRIS, Christensen has also helped to develop several Rotary International World Service projects in West Africa and serves on the Iowa-Yamanashi Sister State Committee.
We recently announced to our YES7 students and host families that we’re doing a special project this spring called, “Where in Iowa are IRIS’s YES students?”
We haven’t shared all of the details yet, but we asked each of the students/families to think of a location near their home that would be representative of where they live…
Here’s a (big) hint about the project:
Rachel Garst is the host mom of Ishaku Abner of Gombe State, Nigeria. They live in Coon Rapids, Iowa, and “Big Shak” attends Coon Rapids-Bayard High School. In this post, Garst tells why having an exchange student from Africa has benefitted her family.
Ishaku with his host siblings
Hosting an exchange student has been great for me and my kids.
At my house, it used to be that there was a lot of bickering over basic chores and homework. Now, when I give my four kids chores, one of them (Shak) always says, “Yes, Mom” and then does the chore immediately.
Ditto with getting the homework done. What a great role model! The other kids see this and also become better helpers and students.
Shak is a great kid and definitely pulls his own weight in our household.
The best thing of all is to see him relax and start to fit in. He’s really starting to feel like part of the family. Now, he also digs in the fridge and teases right back.
I can see the kids are starting to develop their own relationships with him, not just with explaining U.S. life or asking questions about Africa, but on the level of personalities and how we each get along and bounce off each other day to day — how we can tell when someone is tired or pumped or angry or worried or too busy and how the rest of us deal with the person through those moments.
Living with someone day-by-day is definitely the best way to really, really get to know them, and they, you.
