Posted by Alex Brehm
Max Bevan '12 and Kiyo Egashira ‘11 want to further African communities' economic and social development. To do so, they formed the Healthy Scholar Foundation (HSF).
The new campus club raises money for the Millennium Promise, a non-profit organization providing African people with basic necessities in order to equip them to work their way out of poverty.
Bevan and Egashira were inspired to start the club while abroad last semester in Edinburgh, Scotland.
While there, they took a development economics class and learned about issues of world poverty. After reading "The End of Poverty," by Jeffrey Sachs, the students decided to take decisive action and form the new club.
Sachs is a prominent researcher in poverty and economics and is director of the Earth Institute who started Millennium Promise.
The nongovernmental organization provides various services targeting the educational, medical and nutritional needs of developing communities.
The group trains local teachers and provides building materials for new schools, as well as immunizations and mosquito nets to prevent the spread of disease.
The organization attempts to minimize Western intervention into African communities and to equip African community members with tools and training to distribute within their own communities.
HSF will solicit donations through their "dollar a week" program.
With about 2,500 students on campus, Bevan and Egashira hope to raise about $30,000 every semester.
They plan to reward large donations with T-shirts and mugs and expect to partner with the campus African poverty club Bicycles Against Poverty for a large fundraiser late in the semester.
Other plans include a "dollar a day" program. Participants live on a dollar a day in order to gain a better understanding of life in abject poverty.
The Healthy Scholar Foundation can be found at www.thehealthyscholar.org, as well as on Facebook and Twitter accounts.
The club is currently soliciting résumés for several administrative roles: vice president of Finance, vice president of media and donor Relations, vice president of Marketing and secretary.