Georgetown University: School of Foreign Service in Qatar

AMMAN, Jordan – Students at the School of Foreign Service in Qatar used their week of spring break as an opportunity for an education in economics and an opportunity to build an affordable home for a family living in one of Jordan’s rural villages.

The trip, which was part of the Service Learning program located at SFS-Qatar, allowed 11 students to travel to Jordan to meet with a couple of nonprofit organizations that focus on varying strategies to alleviate poverty in the Middle East nation.

“Our goal is to allow students to take some of what they learn in the classroom and see how it is applicable to the real world,” said Victoria Pedrick, associate dean for Academic Affairs at SFS-Qatar.

After arriving in Amman, the group met representatives of the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD), a nonprofit that works toward rights-based sustainable human development in Jordan, and FINCA International, a global organization that provides microfinancing to rural villagers.

Microfinance refers to financial services provided to low-income people, usually to help support self-employment. The services usually include small loans, savings plans, insurance, payment transfers and other services that are provided in small increments that low-income individuals can afford. These services assist families in starting small enterprises such as farming.

“It was really interesting to see how microfinance strategies can be adapted to meet different situations,” said Louisa Aviles (SFS ’09). “I left the meetings impressed by the extent to which microfinance has the power to alleviate poverty.”

The students were able to see first-hand the benefits of microfinance when Winkie Williamson, the director of JOHUD, took them on a tour of the Souq al Ard Saturday Farmer’s Market, where local producers bring a variety of their goods to sell to the community. The students then spent several hours interviewing sellers about the processes and business models they use to make their living.

Though the trip served as a learning experience for the students, it also allowed them to incorporate a bit of community service as they traveled to the village of Al Himmeh in the northern part of Jordan.

It was in Al Himmeh that they learned about Habitat for Humanity’s various projects throughout the country and where they would wind up building a home for a family in the small rural community.

“Making a hands-on difference felt so much better than signing a check,” said Kawthar Abdulhameed Ahen (SFS ’11). “It really feels like an epiphany when you realize that community service isn’t only local; the whole world is one community.”

Habitat for Humanity International works with families to build affordable housing, which is then sold to the family at cost. Families that apply for the program are required to invest hundreds of hours of personal labor, or sweat equity, into the construction of their home.

The students spent four days raising the walls of a 65-square-meter house for a widow with five children. The mother had been sharing a one-bedroom house with all of her children and members of her extended family before being approved for a Habitat home.

Habitat relies on volunteers such as Ashley Littleton (SFS’10) to come and help build the concrete walls that form the exterior and interior structure of the house. “The most rewarding thing is to be able to see the reality within your work,” said Littleton. “You learn that they are not homeless, only houseless.”

As they worked on the house, the SFS-Qatar students and staff laid more than 1,000 cement blocks and prepared the structural supports that would form the cement roof.

For many of the students, the trip to Al Himmeh did more than just accomplish the construction of a house. It helped build a sense of community and camaraderie amongst themselves. “It was incredibly rewarding to build the four walls of this house, but I think the greatest thing we did was tear down the 11 walls between us students,” said Nabil Mohamed (SFS ’11). “Helping my classmates build a community here [in Jordan] while strengthening our own community is the best way I could spend my spring break.”