Good cause

Members of the University of Virginia’s chapter of the national non-profit Building Tomorrow are preparing to lace up their sneakers and flex their leg muscles for the bicycle ride of their lives — without ever leaving Grounds.

They’ll be cycling on 10 stationary bikes set up on the Lawn or in the Amphitheatre April 2 through 6 with two goals — biking the distance from Charlottesville to Uganda and raising $32,000 to build a primary school in Kampala.

“The goal of Building Tomorrow is to help combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in impoverished areas of Uganda by raising the funds necessary to establish schools within the region,” says Mary Slosson (Foreign Affairs, French ’08), director of the U.Va. chapter.

“Through a cumulative effort involving the entire U.Va. and Charlottesville communities, we hope to collectively bike the equivalent of 7,300 miles — the distance from U.Va.’s Lawn to Kampala,” Slosson says.

In the Ampitheatre and on the Lawn

On Monday and Tuesday in the Amphitheatre and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday on the south end of the Lawn, 10 stationary bikes and trainers will be available for cycling participants from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. According to Slosson, competitions and events will take place throughout the week, culminating in a night of music, festivities and the screening of a documentary highlighting the efforts of Building Tomorrow.

To the five members of the U.Va. team who traveled to Uganda over winter break, the miles that separate don’t seem as daunting. A total of 17 students, from the College of William and Mary and the University of Wisconsin River Falls as well as U.Va., spent 15 days in Uganda as part of the first student team to travel under the direction of Building Tomorrow.

Working with children and families

The students spent a week working with the children and their families at Meeting Point, Kampala, the first school in the region, established by the College of William and Mary under the direction of current national executive director George Srour. As they shadowed health care volunteers and spent four days in the homes of Ugandan families, the students also met people living with HIV/AIDS. According to Slosson, observing the local families’ living conditions was particularly moving.

“After we visited the shanty towns just below Meeting Point Kampala, I actually saw the living conditions that these children were coming from — open sewage in the streets, poor housing conditions and no running water,” Slosson says. “Yet these children are so resilient and carefree despite the hardship they have, which humbled me so much. [Building Tomorrow] is a wonderful way through which I can take that shock, that energy, and that desire to do something and really quantify it.”

Since fall 2005, when Jason Faranasiak (Medicine ’09) founded the U.Va. chapter, members have been working toward one tangible goal: to construct a primary school in the Wakiso District, an area where school enrollment is steadily declining and educational opportunities are scarce. Their effort mirrors Building Tomorrow’s national goal, which is to have 10 schools built in Kampala by 2010.

“Our goal has always been to raise enough money to build a primary school and to educate ourselves about the HIV/AIDS situation within the population that we are targeting,” Slosson says. “In the Wakiso district, the statistic for first-grade dropout is 80 percent, which has a lot to do with the distance of the school in Wakiso. It was really motivating to actually see the impact that our work is going to have in the community and to know the children will be able to more readily access education.”

Working together

To assist with the construction and design of the schools, the U.Va. chapter is organizing a team of about six architecture and engineering students to work on the project. Although Building Tomorrow will provide three quarters of the funds necessary for the schools’ construction, one quarter will be furnished by the local community through labor or direct construction assistance.

Fueled by their upcoming project and the organization’s future goals, the U.Va. chapter plans to arrange another trip to Uganda next January, which Slosson hopes will give others the opportunity to experience the regions and the people that Building Tomorrow works to support.

“Building a school to benefit 300 kids is small relative to the statistics, but it’s something,” Slosson says. “Before traveling to Uganda, I talked about fundraising and the importance of building a school in an area that’s been heavily infected by HIV/AIDS, but I didn’t have that visual connect. Now that I see the human side, Building Tomorrow’s work is even more important.”

A&S Online, March 28, 2007