Cincinnati Researchers NSF-Sponsored Trip to East Africa Takes a Slight Detour

Unrest in Kenya created some tense moments for a UC service team in Africa. With assistance from local hosts and a few detours, they are expected to arrive safely in Cincinnati on Sunday.

Students and teachers from the University of Cincinnati (UC) have been travelling in Tanzania in partnership with Village Life Outreach Project, with financial support from a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This weekend, the group will be on its way back home, flying out of the Kilimanjaro International Airport in Arusha, Tanzania.

The team’s goal was to provide professional development to elementary school teachers in the village of Roche, Tanzania, through Project STEP. UC’s NSF-sponsored grant Science and Technology Enhancement Program (STEP) helps science, engineering and technology university students bring their experiences and knowledge into the classroom to become educators. At UC, Project STEP is a joint effort between UC’s College of Engineering and the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) to enhance educational opportunities for scientists who might want to become science teachers. In 2007, STEP was selected by the

National Science Foundation to be one of only 15 universities showcased in Washington, D.C., to exemplify the value of NSF funding.

“Our work has been very successful,” says Dan Oerther, associate professor, civil and environmental engineering and UC’s NSF Project STEP co-investigator. “We explained lessons about animal cells, viruses, geometry and surface area for chemical reactions. We also developed lessons comparing nutrition in Tanzania and Cincinnati. Our projects were very well received by the teachers in Roche primary school and we have spent the past week actively engaged in professional development exchange for the United States and Tanzania teachers.”

"This trip is our sixth group trip to the region,” says Christopher Lewis, MD, Village Life president. “Our mission is to ‘unite communities to promote life, health, and education.’” Lewis has been keeping an eye on the group’s progress from Cincinnati.

The group’s work, which has traditionally been rewarding but challenging, encountered some obstacles in the current state of unrest in Kenya. The team feels that they have been in good hands, though, with the care taken by their hosts.

The group arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday, Dec. 30, just a few hours after the announcement of the election of Mwai Kibaki, the third president of Kenya. The group says they found Nairobi quiet, and on the morning of Monday, Dec. 31, drove out of Nairobi toward Tanzania.

“On the trip we encountered roadblocks in western Kenya and diverted our route through the Maasai Mara National Game Reserve,” Oerther recounts. “Kenyan police forces provided us with armed escorts to ensure our safety but at no time were we threatened.”

The group spent New Year’s Eve at the Livingston Hotel in Kenya and completed their trip to Shirati, Tanzania, on Jan. 1.

“The drive was safe,” Oerther emphasizes, “but we did get word of road blocks and escalating violence in western Kenya.”

Since Jan. 1 they have been safe in Shirati, Tanzania, working to unite villages in Tanzania with the city of Cincinnati to fulfill the Village Life mission and promote life, health and education.

The current team members are working under the framework of Village Life’s Life and Education committees. The Life Committee, chaired by UC College of Engineering alumna Chelsay Brewster, leads the water project that UC engineering students Sarah Pumphrey and Elizabeth Dixon are working on. Their primary goal is to develop and implement appropriate, sustainable technologies to address the problems of water quality and quantity in the region. The team has already implemented three main improvement measures, including point-of-use slow sand filters, solar disinfection of water and Moringa seed particulate matter coagulation.

“The communities are experiencing a significant reduction in water-borne illnesses,” says Lewis.

The Education Committee is chaired by Tara Ivory, a CPS teacher who is also with the group in Africa.

“Their main focus on this trip was to continue work on Village Life’s Nutrition Project, which is aimed at 1) partnering with teachers and students in Tanzania and the United States to increase knowledge of nutrition and 2) developing an in-school feeding program for the students in the villages who otherwise would go hungry all day long and be forced to learn with empty bellies,” Lewis explains.

One of the UC members of the team is graduate student Sarah Pumphrey. She has visited the Tarime region of Tanzania several times with Village Life Outreach Project. Sarah’s research has adapted the technology used to produce drinking water for the city of London, England, and transferred this knowledge into bucket-sized treatment systems that individual families in Tanzania can build in their homes to protect their children from waterborne disease.

The full team is as follows:

1. Dan Oerther, PhD, associate professor, civil and environmental engineering, UC NSF Project STEP co-investigator — Cincinnati
2. Maya Oerther (Dan's 6-year-old daughter) — Cincinnati
3. Anant Kukreti, PhD, professor of environmental and civil engineering and associate dean of engineering education research at UC, UC NSF Project STEP principal investigator — Cincinnati 
4. Rohit Kukreti, Anant's 26-year-old son, who has a master’s in divinity from University of Chicago — Cincinnati
5. Sarah Pumphrey, UC graduate student in civil and environmental engineering, UC NSF Project STEP graduate fellow — originally from Pennsylvania but has been at UC for six years
6. Elizabeth Dixon, UC undergrad student in biomedical engineering, UC NSF REU C-op — originally from northern Ohio
7. Mike Starr, UC graduate student in chemical and materials engineering, UC NSF Project STEP graduate fellow
8. Natara (“Tara”) Ivory, MEd, third-grade teacher at Carson elementary, Village Life Education Committee chair — Cincinnati 
9. Carol Dunn, MEd, secondary teacher, Newport Independent School District, UC NSF Project STEP teacher — northern Kentucky
10. Sarah Lamkin, nurse, children's hospital, dual-masters student at Xavier in nursing and education — Cincinnati 
11. Anna Hutchinson, secondary teacher, Cincinnati Public Schools, UC NSF Project STEP teacher — Cincinnati

Unfortunately due to continued unrest in Kenya, the group found it necessary to reroute their departure via Kilimanjaro International Airport in Arusha, Tanzania, rather than return to the United States via Nairobi, Kenya.

“Our group is doing very well,” says Oerther. “Spirits are high and we are very excited about the work we have accomplished here.”

Sarah Pumphrey and Elizabeth Dixon are staying safely behind in Shirati, Tanzania, through March 15 as part of ongoing NSF research.

“Our hosts here have done an excellent job keeping us safe,” Oerther reiterates.

“The hosts Dan's talking about are Village Life's colleagues in Tanzania, our non-government organization (NGO) ‘sister’ organization, the Shirati Health, Education, and Development Foundation (SHED),” says Lewis. “They have worked with us from the start and are our main on-the-ground support for our work. We appreciate their efforts and sacrifice to keep the group safe.”

Village Life will be sending two more teams this year, in the summer and fall, and are currently recruiting local volunteers — particularly dentists and teachers — for these missions. A large focus of the summer trip will be continuing the planning and development phase of our project to build the first-ever health center in Roche Village, in addition to following up on work done by the current team members.

For more information on Village Life Outreach Project, call 513-584-8630. Visit their Web site to catch a short seven-minute video featuring their work, including numerous highlights of UC participants.