If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. But if you teach him to fish, he’ll be nourished for a lifetime.
Nourish International, a non-profit organization seeking to defeat global poverty, established a chapter on UT’s campus in 2010. Joining 60 campuses across the United States, UTK Nourish has taken four trips abroad to set up sustainable projects in developing communities in Uganda, Peru and Guatemala.
“(Nourish International) brings a better awareness of the world to campus,” said Ashley Dykes, chapter leader and senior in psychology. “It’s really easy, living where we do, to not think about how the rest of the world lives … But, (Nourish) shows that you can do something about the way other people are living and every little thing we do helps.”
Each year, Nourish members spend the year raising funds to donate to a partner organization abroad. At the end of the year, students travel to the organization’s community for six to eight weeks and set up a sustainable project to reduce local poverty.
Still a budding organization on campus, UTK Nourish has approximately 10 members, making it difficult to fund-raise and earn donations. However, last year they raised $2,000 for their partner organization UPAVIM, which stands for unidas para vivir mejor “united for a better life,” a women’s cooperative in Guatemala City.
In the summers of 2013 and 2014, seven Nourish members traveled to the organization’s headquarters and taught English to local Guatemalans.
Karen Trevino, ventures coordinator and sophomore in supply chain management, called her experience in Guatemala “eye-opening.”
“The kids over there are so happy with what they have … and the kids we worked with didn’t have anything,” Trevino said. “When we get there, there are kids running around without shoes. Their clothes are clothes that Americans wouldn’t like and wouldn’t even get to that point.
“We are not used to seeing that … My nephew was complaining he couldn’t get the new iPad mini, and I was like, you have no idea. These kids don’t have anything.”
Trevino taught a group of 20 to 30-year-old Guatemalan women, and said she appreciated the opportunity to hear their stories.
She called them “survivors,” for having endured the culture of gang tensions in Guatemala City.
The day before the UT group headed back to the U.S., the son of a Guatemalan woman who had befriended Trevino was killed as a result of gang violence. Although “heartbreaking,” to the American students, Trevino said the gang issues in Guatemala were commonplace.
“We would hear gun shots at night, and the next day the kids would tell us that so-and-so died, and for them that’s so normal because they live it,” Trevino said.
Sarah Copeland, a senior in nursing who traveled over the summer with the University of New Mexico’s Nourish International chapter, witnessed similar scenarios when building a health clinic in Peru.
“They make their own houses, they make their own boats, they just do everything for themselves,” Copeland said. “But, they’re very happy living the way they live … I’ve never experienced life like that ever.”
UTK Nourish is currently deciding on an organization to partner with for this summer’s project. They continue to sell hand-crafted jewelry on Pedestrian Walkway from the Ugandan women they met during their 2010 project. Half the proceeds are given back to these women and half are donated to the current year’s partner organization. Nourish is also planning a benefit concert to take place in December to raise funds.
Copeland said she hopes to see the group’s size grow over the year, not only to ease fundraising efforts but to allow more students the experience of a Nourish International trip.
“Until you can go outside of your comfort zone and see how those people live their lives in poverty but are so happy to be living the way their living, it’s just crazy,” Copeland said. “It makes you appreciate a lot of things and definitely makes you just think more about what your own values are and how you can take those values back home with you.”
To learn more about UT’s Nourish International chapter, email [email protected]
