Written by Whitney L Dixon
TheHearts After HIZprogram held a fundraiser in the Administration Building Saturday, April 17, to raise funds and awareness for the Namwianga Mission and other missions in Zambia.
The evening included a silent auction of art, photography and quilts, all with a Zambian theme and all made by Harding students. The evening ended with a presentation by Harding University President David Burks and a concert byChristian Yoder.
Approximately $1,900 was raised that night, according to sophomore Sammi Clem, one of the event’s organizers who was a part of the Harding University in Zambia program during fall 2009.
However, there is more to Hearts After HIZ than auctions and speakers. The title of the evening’s festivities indicates an even deeper aim of the program: “Connecting America to Africa, Connecting Our Hearts to HIZ.”
Hearts After HIZ works in conjunction withHarding in Zambia, the university’s newest study abroad program. Students who travel to Zambia during the fall semester take over the responsibilities of the Hearts After HIZ fundraising effort the following spring.
Krista Cone, a member of the first HIZ group in fall 2007, said that, while her group expected the challenges they faced in Zambia and the relationships they formed, they were surprised by the reverse culture shock they felt when they returned to the United States.
“We were not the same as when we left and didn’t know how to cope with the feeling that we needed to do something for someone other than ourselves,” Cone said.
According to Cone, these feelings were amplified by the flooding that occurred in Zambia during the spring of their return. Roads, schools and crops were wiped out, and Cone said that famine soon ensued.
Cone said that, to the returning HIZ group, these events were more than “sad stories that would bring a tear and quickly be forgotten; these people were friends and family of the people we had grown to love. My group knew we had to do something to help ease the pain in whatever small capacity we could.”
It was through this series of events that Hearts After HIZ was born.
While one of the purposes of Hearts After HIZ is fundraising, to those who have been to Africa, it is much more than that. Cone said that the program was an outlet for her group to deal with reverse culture shock together, and hopes that the program can continue to provide that fellowship.
“Hopefully Hearts After HIZ will be a way for returning students to contentedly focus on the positive ways they can help those they just left while re-adjusting back to a place where they now feel disconnected,” Cone said.
One of Clem’s goals has been to use the Hearts After HIZ fundraising responsibilities to raise awareness about what is happening in Africa, and what the people there mean to the students who have been to Zambia.
“We wanted to include an element of what our trip was about, which was the relationships…which were so valuable to us,” Clem said.
Hearts After HIZ is not just for returning HIZ students. Junior Ashley Calcote, who has not been to Zambia, said she got involved through her friends Katie McKuin and Brady Spencer, who both went to Zambia this fall.
“I’ve always had an interest in Africa, and I learned more when they came back in the spring. I got to hear their stories,” Calcote said.
Calcote’s involvement began with helping McKuin sew for the fundraiser, and extended to playing her clarinet at the fundraising event. However, Calcote said that meeting more of the HIZ students and hearing their stories has been the best part of being involved.
“We have so much more here, and we lose sight of that. Hearts After HIZ reminds us of that. It’s good that [HIZ students] have been and can tell us, and we can support them,” Calcote said.
Clem says to be on the lookout for more Hearts for HIZ fundraisers next fall.
“No one has done anything in the fall before, but we had a lot of ideas, so we decided to take advantage of next semester too,” Clem said.
