Student urges local, global change through volunteering

Every morning Molly Farlow wakes up with a plan to make a difference.

For Farlow, a pre-nursing and math major, each day brings her closer to the month she will spend in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Farlow hopes she will be able to advance the lives of those less fortunate and bring forth positive change in a country where many individuals are all but forgotten.

“I got tired of waiting until I graduate to do something in this world,” Farlow said. “I want to do something now.”

That “something” has manifested into an intern-abroad volunteer program in Guatemala City through a global organization, Cross-Cultural Solutions. Farlow will make the trek next May, when she will be abroad for four weeks working in a health-care related field.

According to the Cross-Cultural Solutions Web site, “No other short-term international volunteer program has such a global presence and community-centered approach toward volunteering abroad.”

Rachael Campbell, a nursing major and friend, volunteered with the same organization and says Farlow will have an experience unlike any other.

“Molly has a very giving, generous heart and a lot of patience; all of which she will need,” Campbell stated in an e-mail. “There will probably be times when things are very frustrating (in Guatemala), but she will see the good in it and keep going.”

Campbell has been a good source of advice and reassurance for Farlow who said that Campbell has given her positive feedback on the organization.

“Overall, it was such an incredible experience, and I think that anyone should try it,” Campbell said. “It will give them a completely different perspective on their world and what truly matters in life.”

Farlow said she is no stranger to volunteering and working hard to help others.

“I’ve spent six summers working for Work Camp fixing up
houses for people who couldn’t do it themselves,” Farlow said. “We worked in a lot of the poorer neighborhoods in Richmond.”

Traveling abroad alone doesn’t worry Farlow because she said Cross-Cultural Solutions provides its volunteers with structure.

“We will all live in the same place and go out in groups to different places in Guatemala,” Farlow said. “It seems like it’s a safer way to put ourselves out there.”

Phillip Vaughan, a biomedical engineering student and friend of Farlow, said he isn’t worried about Farlow but will be glad when she makes it back safely.

“Molly shouldn’t have any trouble traveling alone because she is free-spirited and strong-willed,” Vaughan stated in an e-mail.

Farlow said the trip to Guatemala will be expensive. She has been able to raise $450 toward the total of $3,200 and has been able to pay for her plane ticket.

To help get out the word about her trip, Farlow created a Facebook.com group called “Help Molly Get to Guatemala!” She said the page has already generated conversation.

“I started this group to familiarize people with what I’m doing, and hopefully to get fundraising ideas and maybe some financial support,” Farlow stated on the Facebook group Web site.

Problems within Guatemala

 During the second half of the 20th century, Guatemala experienced a variety of military and civilian governments, as well as a 36-year guerrilla war. In 1996, the government signed a peace agreement formally ending the conflict, which had left more than 100,000 people dead and had created, by some estimates, some 1 million refugees.

 The infant mortality rate is 28.79 deaths for every 1,000 live births compared to 8.27 deaths for every 1,000 live births in the United States.

 There is an intermediate risk of contracting food or waterborne diseases such as bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and typhoid fever and vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever and malaria.

 Of Guatemalans age 15 and over, 69.1 percent can read and write, compared to 99 percent of people in the U.S.

 Fifty-six percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

 Ongoing challenges include increasing government revenues, negotiating further assistance from international donors, upgrading both government and private financial operations, curtailing drug trafficking and rampant crime and narrowing the trade deficit.

 Mexico must deal with thousands of impoverished Guatemalans and other Central Americans who cross the porous border looking for work in Mexico and the United States.

 Human trafficking is a significant and growing problem in the country. Guatemalan women and children are trafficked within the country for commercial sexual exploitation, primarily to Mexico and the United States. Guatemalan men, women and children are also trafficked within the country, to Mexico and the United States for forced labor.

 Guatemala is a major transit country for cocaine and heroin. Its proximity to Mexico makes Guatemala a major staging area for drugs (particularly for cocaine). Money laundering and corruption are serious problems.

Information Provided by the CIA World Factbook