A partnership to help end poverty in Africa is growing after Bennett College made an announcement last week that it joined the Millennium Village Project.
The Greensboro-based college is joining with UNC and Duke University. The student-led partnership is part of the U.N. Millennium Project.
The project seeks to end extreme poverty in Africa by giving aid to poor villages and help achieve the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
Junior Manisha Panjwani, a co-coordinator at UNC, said the alliance is a mutual effort on the part of the three schools.
"(Bennett is) a small school so all the students are very involved with what goes on, so it wasn't hard to get them on board," she said.
UNC junior Jaymin Patel, a student-group liaison with the project, said adding another school into the mix is an advantage for the project.
"It was definitely a big positive step for us," he said. "It's a truly unique partnership with a private university, a public university and a traditionally black college. These three very different schools coming together really means a lot."
UNC's contribution to the project, which involves several campus student groups, has reached $1 million to aid an impoverished village in Kenya.
The funding has come from an anonymous alumni and other interested parties. The anonymous donor agreed to match funds raised up to $500,000. Panjwani said she hopes the campuses will raise $1.5 million by August 2007.
"The fact that all these schools are working together on this is great," she said. "We're well into November, and we've gotten way further than we thought. Right now we're trying to inform students.
"We're really going to make a difference in children's lives."
To stay on track, coordinators have planned "MVP Week" which will run from Nov. 6 through Nov. 10.
There will be events throughout the week, leading up to a free public speech from Jeffrey Sachs at 11 a.m. Nov. 10 in Memorial Hall. Sachs is a Columbia University professor who has played a large role in advocating for the Millennium goals.
A student rally will follow Sachs' speech at 12:15 p.m. in the Pit.
Panjwani said she's hoping for a full house. "(Sachs will) do the rest of the job in convincing people how important this cause is," she said.
The week's events are supposed to increase awareness and start a dialogue about the most effective way to enact the project.
"Bringing this kind of thing to light for students will make them ask questions and really start to understand what's going on," Panjwani said.
"MVP is not just another group on campus - but a student movement. It's something that everyone can get involved in."
Patel said the campus movement has been raising funds through T-shirt and headband sales, online donations and overtures to corporations and student groups.
"You can pretty much name a group, and we've contacted them," Patel said. "They've all shown a lot of enthusiasm.
"We're not asking just one group of people, we're trying to ask anyone and everyone."
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
