Malawi is a small African country sandwiched between Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia. And on a cold Saturday morning, hundreds of community members gathered in front of Conrad Hall at the start of a 5K in the name of HIV-positive orphans in an country many may not be able to find on a map.
Hope Project, a recent MSU student group founded in November 2014, organized the event to raise money to build a secondary school for HIV-positive orphans being taken care of by HOPE Village Children’s Home, run by its parent group, Hope Endeavors. The organization’s name is sometimes stylized as H.O.P.E., which is an acronym for “Helping Orphans, Prospering Everyone.”
“The branch (of Hope Endeavors) that we’re working closely with is in Malawi, Africa,” said biomedical laboratory science senior and Hope Project co-president Mackenzie Robson. “The care center houses 30 HIV-positive orphans and we provide spiritual care, nutritional care, medical care and education.”
Nursing junior and Hope Project member Jess Harris said the care center was the only one of its kind, and aimed to “provide hope to those who don’t have hope.”
Robson said 30 students are affiliated with the group.
“We started Hope Project after spending the summer in Malawi, Africa,” said human biology senior and co-president Morgan McLane. McLane’s parents are co-founders of Hope Endeavors.
A group of MSU students went to Malawi during the summer of 2014 and lived at the care center. The experience inspired them to do what they could on campus to support it.
“Because of our experience there, we wanted to come back to Michigan State’s campus where we have such a community of people who we can reach out to,” McLane said.
The 5K even had a symbolic aspect, since the walk from the Malawi care center to the nearest secondary school is five kilometers as well.
Robson said a main aim of Hope Project was to provide an opportunity for students to get involved with projects that go beyond their local communities.
“We’re interested in providing international perspective even with local volunteering,” Robson said.
The school Hope Endeavors aims to build will cost $15,000 and preliminary estimates put the amount of money raised by the 5K, from both registration fees and sponsors, at $4,000. This put a significant dent into the total needed.
Hope Project plans on holding the 5K annually and continuing operations after the co-founders graduate.
"(The project) provides an opportunity to be selfless, and the phrase we’re using a lot is ‘being an anonymous extraordinary,’” Robson said.
