Mr. DiCampo, a 2002 Nipmuc graduate, returned to his alma mater last month to talk about his experience working with the Wantugu Water and Sanitation Committee. Wantugu is a small farming village of about 500 people in the Tolon/Kumbungu District in the Northern Region of Ghana. As Meghan D. White listened to former Nipmuc Regional High School graduate Peter DiCampo talk of his experiences in the Peace Corps in Africa, she was drawn to a photograph he had taken of children in the rural village, laughing as they played in a pile of leaves. What struck her the most was how happy they were. Despite the poor sanitary conditions, potential for malnutrition and susceptibility to disease, they were carefree. “They were kids exactly like our little sisters and brothers and they need our help,” said Ms. White, a 17-year-old Nipmuc High senior. It was Mr. DiCampo who inspired Ms. White, who now plans to join the Peace Corps after she gets a college education. But she is not waiting until then to volunteer. Ms. White has started a fundraising effort to build, or at least assist in building, a nutrition center in Wantugu. The Wantugu Water and Sanitation Committee will be in charge of the building project, which will be staffed and supplied by Ghana Health Services.
Peter DiCampo talk of his experiences in the Peace Corps in Ghana
Nipmuc students work to help village in Ghana
Student leading effort to raise funds
By Donna Boynton TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
They were kids exactly like our little sisters and brothers and they need our help.
Meghan D. White,
NIPMUC REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR
MENDON— As Meghan D. White listened to former Nipmuc Regional High School graduate Peter DiCampo talk of his experiences in the Peace Corps in Africa, she was drawn to a photograph he had taken of children in the rural village, laughing as they played in a pile of leaves.
What struck her the most was how happy they were. Despite the poor sanitary conditions, potential for malnutrition and susceptibility to disease, they were carefree.
“They were kids exactly like our little sisters and brothers and they need our help,” said Ms. White, a 17-year-old Nipmuc High senior.
Mr. DiCampo, a 2002 Nipmuc graduate, returned to his alma mater last month to talk about his experience working with the Wantugu Water and Sanitation Committee. Wantugu is a small farming village of about 500 people in the Tolon/Kumbungu District in the Northern Region of Ghana.
It was Mr. DiCampo who inspired Ms. White, who now plans to join the Peace Corps after she gets a college education.
But she is not waiting until then to volunteer. Ms. White has started a fundraising effort to build, or at least assist in building, a nutrition center in Wantugu. The Wantugu Water and Sanitation Committee will be in charge of the building project, which will be staffed and supplied by Ghana Health Services.
Ms. White’s goal is to raise $3,049 — the cost to build the nutrition center in the mud-and-bricks style that is common to that area. The center will have three rooms for food storage, one room for food preparation and a pavilion where children can eat and where educational programs will be offered.
The nutrition center will serve an estimated 1,000 children in Wantugu and surrounding villages. Presently, families have to travel several hours to the nearest hospital for medical care.
The nutrition center will serve as a home base for four nurses who currently work at the Wantugu Health Center.
The work at the center will focus on providing children with proper nutrition and vitamins; educating people in personal hygiene, health and wound care; dispensing medicine; teaching residents how to properly strain water to prevent contracting Guinea worm, and how to prevent other diseases.
Ms. White has become well-versed in the needs of the Ghanaian children through her research. She said an estimated 40 percent of the children in the area are malnourished, and Guinea worm is the biggest problem.
Guinea worm, or Dracunculiasis, is an infection caused by a parasite; it affects people in poor African communities who do not have sanitary water supplies, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The parasite emerges from the skin of those infected with Guinea worm. The infected person may enter a body of water seeking relief from the burning caused by the infection or to simply get water. The worms emerge from the skin, enter the water and release larvae. The larvae are eaten by water fleas. People become infected with Guinea worm when they drink water containing contaminated water fleas, according to the CDC.
Compounding the existing malnutrition issue, last year’s farming season was affected by a drought and then flooding, which is expected to create a severe food shortage, according to Ms. White’s research.
Ms. White has just started her efforts, and hopes to enlist the support of the National Honor Society and the school’s chapter of Amnesty International.
Ms. White said the focus right now is on building the center. Once it is built, the center will need to be stocked.
“There really is no difference between us and them, other than the way we live,” said Ms. White. “The concept of not helping them is ridiculous to me.”
Anyone wishing to donate to the Wantugu Children’s Nutrition Center may send e-mail to Ms. White at sugagurl@meghanwhite.com or may reach Mr. Della Rovere through the school’s Web site,
