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After planning for more than a year, 20 Windsor Law students journeyed to Cape Town, South Africa, volunteering at orphanages, schools and shanty towns, helping out in any way they could.
As members of the Golden Key International Honour Society, which boasts more than 1.7 million student and alumni members around the globe, they were able to connect with Golden Key members at South African universities to create a volunteer action plan.
UWindsor student Gary Kalaci had previously visited the shanty towns that pepper the Cape Town skyline on a three-day fact-finding mission to see how students could help.
After he got back, students started planning a volunteer trip that would concentrate on providing health education, trying to help impoverished communities set up their own small businesses, and work with poor youth and orphans to develop life skills.
After seeing the devastating impact of the HIV rates in South Africa - where nearly one in four adults aged 15-49 was diagnosed with HIV in 2005, according to UNICEF - the group plans to concentrate on spreading awareness about prevention and treatment of HIV when they return on a second visit.
Plus, representatives from Golden Key have made a commitment to return to Cape Town every summer for the next five years and plan to send a growing group of volunteers every year.
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