March 2002 Newsletter
From The Director . . .
We are excited to announce that the Marian Wright
Edelman Institute will host "Achievements and
Possibilities," a reunion and reception, on November 7th
at Seven Hills Conference Center.
The purpose of this event is to re-engage the
original friends of the Institute who were so instrumental
in its development and to inform and engage new faculty on
campus.
Our hope is that they will identify the Marian Wright
Edelman Institute as a supportive environment to further
their scholarship, program development and interest in
children, youth and families.
Project directors from the Child Study Center,
JumpStart, The Global Learning Center, The Child and
Adolescent Development Program, the Early Childhood Training
Consortium and the Mission Science Project will be available
during the reception from 5 – 6pm in the lobby of Seven
Hills to speak one-on-one about their programs. Over dinner,
program directors look forward to meeting with faculty
guests to further explain and explore opportunities for
research, program development and other initiatives
available to them in their area of interest. That evening,
the Institute will announce a new RFP process that will
award “mini-grants” to support current Institute
initiatives and further expand faculty interests in
children, youth and families.
For those of you who would like additional
information on the Institute and its programs, please
contact me directly at 338-6976 or our Director of
Operations, Janet Egiziano, at 405-3560. If you have not
received an invitation to the November 7th event
but are interested in joining us, please call 405-3564 to
make a reservation, as seating is limited. On a more somber
note…In light of the recent events of September 11th,
many of our colleagues who are mental health providers have
sent us information on how to discuss these events with
children.
-Charlotte
Ferretti
Aids
Link Developed By San Francisco Group
Kenya
Villages Gain Access to Treatment and Research Information
AIDS healthcare workers in Kenyan Villages can now
access up-to-date AIDS treatment and research information
through an innovative new program developed by two San
Francisco-based nonprofit groups, WiRED International
(partner to the Edelman Institute's Global Learning Center),
and Global Strategies for HIV Prevention. The National
Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research provided
funding for this test pilot to evaluate a proposal to expand
the use of computers as a community resource in the fight
against AIDS in Africa.
The
resource centers setup in the initial five villages each
have four computers and five local resource coordinators
trained by WiRED International to serve as the link between
the wealth of information available on the computers and the
needs of the local community. The initial training program
prepared coordinators to offer service in two ways: they can
research the available data basis for answers needed by the
health care workers and they can teach members of the
community to perform their own research. Professional
medical staff, home healthcare workers responsible for the
care of family members with AIDS, and young people looking
for HIV/AIDS prevention information will all have access to
the resource center.
Each center received an extensive CD-ROM collection
compiled by WiRED from the latest AIDS material available
from government institutions, public research groups, and
companies involved in AIDS-related research. The CD
collection also includes a comprehensive library of medical
conditions, treatments and prevention techniques for
illnesses common to the region. As the coordinators gain
experience with the materials and identify new needs, the
CDs will be updated. Village centers with ISP service
available will also be able to use the Internet.
During a recent visit to Kenya to review the
installation of the computers and the training programs, Dr.
Gary Selnow , Executive Director of WiRED and Project
Director of the Edelman Institute's Global Learning Center
observed, "Everyone in Africa is touched by AIDS. In
communities where up to 25% of the population is HIV
infected, everyone has lost a family member or a close
friend and continues to care for other people suffering from
the disease. Many of the coordinators in the Audience were
left orphans at a young age. They sensed immediately the
importance of having up-to-date facts to use in the
treatment of AIDS and in the ongoing efforts to prevent the
spread of HIV infection."
The
Kenya AIDS community resource center program was funded by a
grant from the National Institutes of Health. With the
funding, WiRED will pay for all hardware and software, the
initial training program, and the operation of the centers
for one year. During the year, the effectiveness of the
program will be measured by independent research conducted
by social psychologist, Professor William Crano of the
Claremont Graduate University. After the effectiveness
research is completed, the National Institutes of Health
will consider expanding the program to other areas
of Africa.
Edelman
Institute Welcomes Project SHINE/SAIL
Project SHINE --
Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders -- directed
by Dr. Gail Weinstein, has affiliated with the Edelman
Institute.
SHINE is a national community service learning effort
with sister sites in several other major cities.
Students in the program help prepare older learners
for their citizenship exam or assist them in developing
English literacy.
Each year approximately 200 SFSU and CCSF students
from across the disciplines provide approximately 4,000
hours of "coaching" for elders learning literacy
and preparing for naturalization.
These student coaches receive credit through
community-service learning "project options" in
their academic classes.
Project SAIL --
Students Assisting with Immigrant Literacies -- is an
extension of SHINE in which SFSU and CCSF students are
placed in ESL/literacy classes or in family literacy classes
in other community settings.
The emphasis in SAIL is on implementing a model
called "Learners Lives as Curriculum" in which
they assist teachers in collecting learner stories for
development into language and literacy lessons.
The current focus for SAIL is the "First
Amendment Project."
The Edelman Institute welcomes these new projects to
our growing cadre of literacy programs.
To learn more about SHINE or SAIL, contact Dr. Gail
Weinstein at gailw@sfsu.edu.
What
Youth in Africa Are Saying About AIDS Prevention
Like many young people throughout Africa, young people (in
their late teens, early twenties) have lost their parents to AIDS.
Their experiences with this awful disease have motivated them to
fight the illness with a powerful weapon: information.
Recently seven of these young men and women completed a
five-day training session in which they learned to use a computer
and the Internet. The training was conducted by WiRED as part of a
larger project to bring health care information to medical
professionals and average people in Africa. When these young
writers saw the power of the Internet, they suggested that we put
their booklet on line for the benefit of young people everywhere.
We are happy to install this information on our Website (http://www.wiredinternational.org).
We invite you to read some excerpts from the on-line version
of the AIDS education booklet:
My
Dream
I
can't believe as I try to foresee our future. I see only a
fallen state, and all because of our faults. After enjoying
life as an adolescent with my best friends, mournful tears now
flow down my cheeks. Even the innocent suffer, as AIDS doesn't
differentiate between rich and poor, wise or foolish, young or
old. It takes those who are most loved, with mournful tears
flowing down my cheeks. Don't do things because others do. Be
careful at work and at leisure. Have many friends, but be
yourself, for the future is what you and I make it, with
mournful tears flowing down our cheeks.
-Julius
Chege
It's
your choice, good or bad. You may be lucky with whatever you
choose, but remember, "Prevention is better than cure,"
and AIDS has no cure! It's up to you to take care of yourself, and
join the fight to stop the killer!
-Eric
Maina
My
Generation
Let's open our eyes
and see what's happening, see that we really need to make
changes. Let's change the way we think, the way we perceive
things. It takes brains to do it, because the eyes only see
what the mind is prepared to comprehend. Seek out yourself,
make peace with your inner being before confronting the
outside world. ("Peace comes from within, do not seek it
without" -Gautama Buddha)
-Bonnie
Ngigi
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