FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A school in Belize tries to feed children who come to school hungry, but it doesn’t have enough food so the poorest children eat on some days and not on others. Health workers report that many children suffer intestinal infections likely caused by bad water. Unemployment runs as high as 50 percent in some parts of the country.

Through a new multidisciplinary project of community development and learning, University of Arkansas students will help feed and educate children and improve the lives of the people of the underdeveloped Central American country of Belize.

Children smile for the camera during a visit to Belize in February by a group from the University of Arkansas.

“A few universities have developed multidisciplinary programs of one kind or another involving two departments, but I don’t know of any program, anywhere with such a broad, multidisciplinary approach as we are undertaking with the University of Arkansas in Belize,” said Stephen Darr, director of Peacework, http://www.peacework.org/, a nongovernmental agency partnering with the university. Darr, who grew up in Little Rock, graduated from the university in 1977 with a degree in psychology and started Peacework, which is based in Virginia and Prague, in 1989.

UA students will reach Belize after an airplane trip of a little more than two hours, traveling then to Dangriga, a city of about 10,000 on the Caribbean coast. A $25,000 grant from the Honors College funded development of the project that had been discussed since a visit two years ago by Darr. He had maintained relationships with people on campus such as DeDe Long, director of the Office of Study Abroad and International Exchange, and wanted to pursue a partnership between his alma mater and Peacework. A group of faculty members visited Belize in February.

Charles Adams, associate dean for academic affairs and international programs in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, believes there’s no better investment of a student’s time and money than study abroad and cites the legacy of the college’s namesake in fostering the growth of international exchange programs.

“When people go to other countries and learn about other cultures, the benefits are immense,” Adams said. “They broaden their horizons. It makes them citizens of the world and, we hope, will create a more peaceful world.”

The university boasts a strong study abroad program coordinated by Long. Belize was a natural choice for the program with Peacework because of the organization’s established presence there.

“Peacework is very active in Belize,” Adams said. “They built a structure into which we can plug our project. We see this as an ongoing project, a five-year commitment. We’re not going to parachute in, stay for a month and then march off thinking we have done some good.”

UA students must take a three-credit hour humanities course in the spring to go to Belize during the first summer session and can earn up to six credit hours. The spring course taught by a team of nine faculty members from five colleges will be a survey of issues facing developing nations with a specific focus on Central America and Belize, Adams said. It includes an additional noncredit hour of drill, or lab, to plan the service projects.

“This is at the heart of the service learning concept,” Adams explained, “to wed academics and community service. We are looking at these communities from a wide variety of disciplines and angles. We want to address all the issues rather than on a piecemeal basis. You can’t separate a good water system from health care or have good health without education or education without social systems that work well.”

Belize celebrated 25 years of independence on Sept. 21. Formerly called British Honduras, the country’s nearly 300,000 people are a mix of Creoles, Mestizos, Mayans and Garifunas, a Caribbean people descended from African slaves and indigenous groups. English is the official language of Belize, although it isn’t the first language of the majority of residents.

The country enjoys some benefits from tourism because of its spectacular beauty, tropical beaches, Mayan ruins and the second longest barrier coastline after the Great Barrier Reef off the east coast of Australia. However, the region in which the UA students and faculty will be working could not be described as a resort area, said David Jolliffe, a professor of English who has visited the country twice in advance of next summer’s project.

“It’s a very, very, very poor country,” Jolliffe emphasized.

Two May graduates of the Fulbright college are working this academic year in the Stann Creek region in preparation for the seven UA service projects to be undertaken. Introduced by Peacework employees to government and community leaders in Dangriga, Danis Copenhaver, 22, of Conway and Drew Cogbill, 22, of Fort Smith are building contacts with additional people to assess the region’s needs and lay the groundwork. Cogbill works in the Dangriga mayor’s office and supervises a computer lab at a community college while Copenhaver teaches math at one of the primary schools and assists at a government social service agency called the Women’s Department and at the regional hospital.

Copenhaver, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, deferred admission to medical school at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in order to work in Belize. Cogbill earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and music.

Students recite a pledge of allegiance to Belize in five languages.

During a visit to Fayetteville last week, the two told of adjusting to the weather, transportation difficulties and lack of resources, while they also said they enjoy the people and their work. The people of Belize embrace the multicultural nature of their country, Copenhaver said, describing how children in school recite a pledge of allegiance to Belize in five languages.

Jolliffe’s group of students will work in conjunction with Belizean teachers in training who are enrolled in a community college in Dangriga. The UA students will meet with elementary and middle school students and their families, assess their current literacy abilities and future goals and help them set up reading and writing experiences that they can do together throughout the summer of 2007.

About 34 percent of the adult population is functionally literate, Jolliffe said. Students in Belize face many challenges. For instance, those who finish the equivalent of eighth grade in the United States must pass a test and apply for acceptance to high school, which costs $700 to attend, an astronomical sum for many residents. Copenhaver can’t give homework in her math class because many of the children can’t afford to buy textbooks.

Kameri Christy-McMullin, an assistant professor of social work, said her students will train teachers to conduct group sessions with children to improve self-esteem and build a sense of national pride. They will give instruction on conflict resolution, parenting skills and identifying and intervening in situations of substance abuse, child abuse and domestic violence.

Nilda Burgos, associate professor of crop, soil and environmental sciences, and Jennie Popp, associate professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness, are collaborating on a project to design and implement a sustainable farm at a school. Plants and animals raised on the farm will support the school meal program with excess to be sold in local markets to provide income for the school.

Thomas Soerens, associate professor of civil engineering, will lead students in designing and building a water system for a community in the area. A clean water supply will help reduce the high incidence of waterborne diseases, he said. He has worked on similar projects in Colombia, Pakistan and the Maldives.

Kimberly Smith, professor and chair of the department of biological sciences, and Gary Ritter, associate professor of education and public policy, expect to firm up plans for their projects following a trip to Belize next week. Smith will lecture in the spring on the flora and fauna of Belize, and he expects to address environmental problems in the service project.

Ritter said he’s looking at developing a project to combine students with majors in education and health professions, and Cogbill described the possibility of students surveying residents about their knowledge of and access to health care and social services.

Most teachers have training only one level above the level they are teaching, Ritter said, and his students may be able to strengthen those teachers’ abilities in the classroom. Other students may gather data that could help Belize officials with decisions concerning the education system and other public policy areas.

Amy Farmer, professor of economics, and her students will use material from the UA Bessie B. Moore Center for Economic Education to teach economic literacy in a school in the region.

The UA students may find the project affects their own lives in addition to improving the lives of the Belize residents, Farmer said.

“I feel a program such as this will impact the students in a broader way,” she said. “Students’ experience in these kinds of service projects in college often will impact what kind of career they choose.”

UA students interested in learning about the cost of the trip and other details should contact the faculty members involved or the UA Office of Study Abroad and International Exchange at (479) 575-7582 or http://studyabroad.uark.edu/.

Photos courtesy of Barbara Hinton/College of Education and Health Professions