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Frederick student visits African nonprofits - The Frederick News-Post Online
Frederick resident Denise Phelps visited so many countries this year that she had to add extra pages to her passport.
Phelps, a graduate student at American University, spent eight weeks in Africa for two internships with nonprofit organizations, traveling to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali and Kenya. Earlier this year, she also visited Bangladesh, Qatar, South Korea and China through a spring break program and an international business class.
What has all that travel gotten her?
One bad case of food poisoning, five new African dresses, countless new friends and a new life's dream.
Phelps has worked at First United Bank & Trust in Frederick for 13 years and is pursuing an MBA and Master of International Development. Now, she hopes that one day she will be able to return to Africa and set up a development-oriented business.
Her long-term goal is to found a business that could be transferred to employees through a stock purchase program. Then, the employees would become managers. And, she'd like to hire employees that have disabilities or are deaf -- the people at the bottom of the poverty rung in Africa, she said.
On her trip, Phelps decided that anything she does to help Africans will include setting up a sustainable program with leadership opportunities for the people there.
"It was eye-opening," Phelps said. "There's certainly a lot of organizations that are doing great work and have intentions of being there forever. Unfortunately, there are a lot of organizations that haven't thought that way."
Phelps traveled to Africa, paying her own way, packing one backpack and eight pieces of clothes for the eight-week trip. She completed internships for two organizations: Yehu Microfinance in Mombasa, Kenya, and GlobalGiving.org, an organization that connects local charities with donor networks in developed countries.
For GlobalGiving, Phelps was part of a group of five interns visiting nongovernmental organizations in several countries that were part of the network. They also led workshops for organizations that are not part of the GlobalGiving network to tell them about it and how to use the Internet for fundraising and networking.
Phelps was especially touched when she visited two schools for the deaf. Both of her parents are deaf and American Sign Language is her first language.
She was able to communicate with children who also used American Sign Language. On her blog, Phelps described visiting the Cape Coast School for the Deaf and Blind in the central region of Ghana, where a dance was performed.
"We were greeted with drums being played by some of the blind students in the school," Phelps wrote. "Although that was amazing enough, deaf dancers came out and performed regional traditional dances with only the beating of the large drums to cue their movements."
She and another intern joined in the dance, but were not able to keep up as well, even though they were hearing.
"Nothing about these children is lacking or incapable," she said. "In fact, it is their capabilities that allow them to overcome all barriers to be successful."
She also enjoyed visiting with people who were able to take advantage of the Yehu Microfinance program. For instance, she met a Kenyan man who had been selling meat from a wooden slab table.
With a loan from Yehu, he was able to build a shop. In just over a year, that loan will be paid off, and he's taking out another to build a second location.
"It's just amazing because he wouldn't have resources to do that otherwise," Phelps said.
She returned from the trip last week and is working on developing a marketing and new product development plan for Yehu.
Frederick resident Denise Phelps visited so many countries this year that she had to add extra pages to her passport.
Phelps, a graduate student at American University, spent eight weeks in Africa for two internships with nonprofit organizations, traveling to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali and Kenya. Earlier this year, she also visited Bangladesh, Qatar, South Korea and China through a spring break program and an international business class.
What has all that travel gotten her?
One bad case of food poisoning, five new African dresses, countless new friends and a new life's dream.
Phelps has worked at First United Bank & Trust in Frederick for 13 years and is pursuing an MBA and Master of International Development. Now, she hopes that one day she will be able to return to Africa and set up a development-oriented business.
Her long-term goal is to found a business that could be transferred to employees through a stock purchase program. Then, the employees would become managers. And, she'd like to hire employees that have disabilities or are deaf -- the people at the bottom of the poverty rung in Africa, she said.
On her trip, Phelps decided that anything she does to help Africans will include setting up a sustainable program with leadership opportunities for the people there.
"It was eye-opening," Phelps said. "There's certainly a lot of organizations that are doing great work and have intentions of being there forever. Unfortunately, there are a lot of organizations that haven't thought that way."
Phelps traveled to Africa, paying her own way, packing one backpack and eight pieces of clothes for the eight-week trip. She completed internships for two organizations: Yehu Microfinance in Mombasa, Kenya, and GlobalGiving.org, an organization that connects local charities with donor networks in developed countries.
For GlobalGiving, Phelps was part of a group of five interns visiting nongovernmental organizations in several countries that were part of the network. They also led workshops for organizations that are not part of the GlobalGiving network to tell them about it and how to use the Internet for fundraising and networking.
Phelps was especially touched when she visited two schools for the deaf. Both of her parents are deaf and American Sign Language is her first language.
She was able to communicate with children who also used American Sign Language. On her blog, Phelps described visiting the Cape Coast School for the Deaf and Blind in the central region of Ghana, where a dance was performed.
"We were greeted with drums being played by some of the blind students in the school," Phelps wrote. "Although that was amazing enough, deaf dancers came out and performed regional traditional dances with only the beating of the large drums to cue their movements."
She and another intern joined in the dance, but were not able to keep up as well, even though they were hearing.
"Nothing about these children is lacking or incapable," she said. "In fact, it is their capabilities that allow them to overcome all barriers to be successful."
She also enjoyed visiting with people who were able to take advantage of the Yehu Microfinance program. For instance, she met a Kenyan man who had been selling meat from a wooden slab table.
With a loan from Yehu, he was able to build a shop. In just over a year, that loan will be paid off, and he's taking out another to build a second location.
"It's just amazing because he wouldn't have resources to do that otherwise," Phelps said.
She returned from the trip last week and is working on developing a marketing and new product development plan for Yehu.