Although Dila Perera's Peace Corps commitment ended during the summer 2001, she accepted an invitation to stay on for a third year to continue her health education work in a port city in Madagascar.
Ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things
On the strikingly unique and lush island of Madagascar, Puget Sound graduate Dila Perera �95 is fighting the war against HIV/AIDS. Although Madagascar has the lowest rate of the disease in Sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in neighboring South Africa and Malawi makes prevention education extremely important for the local Malagasy population.
The process of educating high-risk members of society, however, can be difficult. �You have to fight for people to believe that danger exists, since they have never seen a person with AIDS and still consider it to be a �foreign� disease,� explained Perera. �But studies show that fear doesn�t change behavior, while peer education can.� Using a grant from the U.S. Ambassador, Perera and two Malagasy outreach workers have helped implement a peer education program that addresses HIV/AIDS prevention.
Perera has been conducting her efforts on the island since 1999 as a member of the Peace Corps. According to Perera, the strength of her Puget Sound education has been instrumental in building the necessary background to take on such a challenge. A politics and government major, she also earned a double minor in women�s studies and comparative sociology.
�The Peace Corps has been a synthesis of not only my major and minors, but all themes therein: social stratification; political and cultural systems; and the interplay between power, culture, poverty, gender and development,� she explained. �Just as the premise of a liberal arts education is breadth of knowledge, the goal of good international development is sustainability based on depth of understanding�of not only the immediate problem that faces a community, but the underlying causes, cultural norms and the interplay of those factors. At Puget Sound I had professors that encouraged their students to look for connections between issues and delve beyond the obvious; this type of thinking has helped me when faced with difficult issues or problems.�
The rewards that her efforts and abilities have garnered are priceless, instilling in her a life-long passion to address women�s reproductive health and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Moreover, Perera has gained an incredible sense of personal accomplishment. �Watching people react with pride to what they did is deeply moving. I have seen great ideas hatched and executed based on drawings made in the dirt with sticks�the Peace Corps has completely rekindled my belief that ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things.�
Puget Sound holds a perennial position in the top ten list for small colleges and universities for Peace Corps volunteers, with 17 delegates currently in service. Although Perera�s Peace Corps commitment ended during the summer 2001, she accepted an invitation to stay on for a third year to continue her health education work in a port city in Madagascar.
�Nate Snodgrass �01
