“Don’t be a Passenger in Your Education. Grab the Steering Wheel”
When Rachel Barth was an undergraduate, she participated in a group that raised funds for community-run projects in Haiti. Rachel made her first trip to Haiti on a 10-day immersion experience to meet Haitians working on these projects. In one community her group visited, Rachel learned about a religious order that provided services (e.g., children’s programs and micro-financing programs) and offered two volunteer opportunities—a summer program and a year-long experience. Rachel returned to Haiti to work with children aged 8–12 years old in a summer camp. Later, Rachel returned again to Haiti, this time with her new husband, to complete the year-long service experience. Upon their arrival, they began taking courses to learn the national language, Haitian Creole. They also painted houses, worked in a homeless shelter, and got to know members of the community. During their year of service, Rachel and her husband also learned about Meds and Foods for Kids, a program operated by a U.S. organization that provided enriched food to children in Haiti. To determine whether their community could benefit from this program, they conducted a community needs assessment by assessing child malnutrition (measuring arm circumference of children aged 6 months to 5 years) at a health clinic. Their assessment determined that the children of the community were experiencing malnutrition, and so they moved forward to bring the program to their community. For the remainder of their year of service, they provided assessment and follow-up with the children and their families and helped to train clinic staff to assess and treat malnutrition.
When Rachel returned to the U.S., she began an MSW program. She was able to return once again to Haiti, this time for a practicum in which she conducted a research project to evaluate the micro-financing project administered by the religious order. Rachel spent a summer interviewing recipients of the micro-loans and prepared a report for the religious order that included information about the borrowers, ways the loans were being used, repayment rates, and barriers to repayment.
Rachel describes her international experiences as fantastic and challenging. She felt welcomed by the Haitians who were open about talking with her about their dreams. She encourages social work students interested in gaining international experiences to be proactive in taking advantage of, or creating their own, opportunities to study and work in another country. She offers these insights on her experience: “Reflect and think critically about what you want to do and how you want to do it. There are lots of ways to work internationally. Learn about the community and remember you are a foreigner. It is easy to think we know more than they do, but we don’t. We need to listen to them. They are the experts on their lives.” To read more about Rachel’s research and experience, see Barth, Birkenmaier, & Berg-Weger (2014).