Students in "Perspectives in Global Health" and Professor Laurine Brown (third from right) pose at a fundraising event.
BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— Students at Illinois Wesleyan University raised more than $1,000 in less than two weeks to support clean water and microfinance projects in Central America and Africa through Global Brigades’ Sustainable Transition Fund.
Michelle Choi '19 (left) and Jasmine Worrell '18 staff a table to raise money in the "Global Brigades for Clean Water" campaign.
Global Brigades is an international nonprofit that empowers communities to meet their health and economic goals through university volunteers and local teams. The Sustainable Transition Fund allocates funds to establish capital for local businesses and to build water projects in rural communities in Central America and Africa. Course professor Laurine Brown said 100 percent of funds raised by IWU students through donation tables, an online fundraising platform, and a bake sale will be specifically targeted to Central America and Africa. Beehler, who has visited Honduras as president of IWU’s Medical/Dental and Public Health Global Brigade chapters, noted several communities in Honduras are very close to becoming self-sustainable.
As associate professor of health and environmental studies, Brown provides students in the “Global Health” course with opportunities to examine critical health issues across different world regions, especially developing countries. In previous years, her students have raised money for clean water, insecticide-treated bed nets to fight malaria, flood relief in Pakistan, and a peanut butter project to feed malnourished children.