10 Within 10 Recognition
Kaitlynne Rethman '12
Kaitlynne Rethman, ’12, arrived halfway around th?e world last spring in a small village called Vinthukutu in the African country of Malawi.
Then she got busy.
On a 27-month tour through the Peace Corps, she started a pilot HIV/AIDS awareness program for youth in the village. She began training adults on HIV/AIDS awareness, safe sex, sexually transmitted infections and family planning.
With the help of the local forestry department, she found someone to donate two acres of land to start a Moringa plantation, and she identified a village willing to maintain it.
The leaves from this “super tree” are high in vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, protein and potassium. Children who add the powdered leaves to their diet are less likely to suff?er from malnutrition. Rethman also found time to adopt a white-pawed puppy named Boots.
“Service here is what you make it,” Rethman said in an email interview from Malawi. Change happens slowly, she says. But she can tell she’s making a difference.
“I can see it in the friends I’ve made and the people I work with – small changes in their attitudes and the way they live,” she says. ”But most volunteers don’t have a chance to see the difference we make. We’re here for such a short time, and it takes time to see the progress in the area we work.”
Rethman caught the volunteering bug while at CMU.
“I have a passion for helping people,” she says. She discovered her love of global volunteerism while helping out at an orphanage in Ghana during a CMU study abroad trip.
“I felt like the Peace Corps could help both me and the people of another country,” she says. “I’ve learned so much more than I could have ever imagined. It’s a fantastic experience.”
Then she got busy.
On a 27-month tour through the Peace Corps, she started a pilot HIV/AIDS awareness program for youth in the village. She began training adults on HIV/AIDS awareness, safe sex, sexually transmitted infections and family planning.
With the help of the local forestry department, she found someone to donate two acres of land to start a Moringa plantation, and she identified a village willing to maintain it.
The leaves from this “super tree” are high in vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, protein and potassium. Children who add the powdered leaves to their diet are less likely to suff?er from malnutrition. Rethman also found time to adopt a white-pawed puppy named Boots.
“Service here is what you make it,” Rethman said in an email interview from Malawi. Change happens slowly, she says. But she can tell she’s making a difference.
“I can see it in the friends I’ve made and the people I work with – small changes in their attitudes and the way they live,” she says. ”But most volunteers don’t have a chance to see the difference we make. We’re here for such a short time, and it takes time to see the progress in the area we work.”
Rethman caught the volunteering bug while at CMU.
“I have a passion for helping people,” she says. She discovered her love of global volunteerism while helping out at an orphanage in Ghana during a CMU study abroad trip.
“I felt like the Peace Corps could help both me and the people of another country,” she says. “I’ve learned so much more than I could have ever imagined. It’s a fantastic experience.”