OPERATION DAY'S WORK TO RAISE MONEY FOR HEALTH CLINIC IN BURUNDI

Operation Day's Work, a student-run international organization, signed up 200 HHS students who will volunteer to work for a day in May to raise money for a community health center in the African nation of Burundi. At the fair explaining Operation Day's work, students signed volunteer sheets, sampled African foods and watched videos from Burundi. On May 14 the volunteers will leave school for a day, work in local odd jobs, and donate their pay to Operation Day's Work. All of the money workers make will be donated to the Kigutu Community Health Center, a clinic that provides primary care to the people of rural Kigutu, Burundi.

Senior Helen Jack writes: "Burundi is the poorest country in the world. The majority of the population lacks basic health care, and the HIV/AIDS infection rate is extremely high. The health center, run by the Hanover, New Hampshire-based Village Health Works, provides essential primary care for up to 20,000 people in and around the rural, mountainous village. A volunteer's day of work will help save the lives of people in Burundi."

Operation Day's Work was founded in Norway forty years ago. Since 1998 the US Agency for International Development has supported the activities of ODW at United States schools.