February 14, 2003

Humphrey fellows share real-world solutions

Humphrey Program participants are, from left to right in front: Nasser Al Hosni, program assistant Sasha Johnson, Nhlah Thabit, Marcia Varaschin, Salah Chouki, Rajeev Arora and Gonca Undul, and in back, Taleb Al-Harithi, Hintsa Bisrat, Maung Lwin, Roberto Maria, Tendayi Macharaga, Erdenebat Eldev-Ochir and program director Paul Marcotte. Neil Michel/Axiom

By Clifton B. Parker

The way Tendayi Macharaga sees it, he’s chasing a dream — to save the lives of his fellow Zimbabweans.
 
That’s why this Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow — one of 13 on campus — is here studying at UC Davis. Guided by faculty mentors, the fellows are post-graduate international students who undertake individualized programs of academic and professional development and leadership. The idea is to give them new “knowledge tools” to help them make a difference upon return to their countries.
 
In Zimbabwe, notes Macharaga, one in four people are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus. That’s a human catastrophe already happening, he said.
 
“It’s so serious in our country that we cannot even begin to talk about improving economic development if so many people are stricken down with AIDS,” said Macharaga, a management consultant who is studying agricultural economics. He wants to learn how U.S. AIDS counseling centers operate and better understand public health strategies on this deadly issue. After his one-year program, Macharaga will return to Zimbabwe to help control the spread of AIDS. Humphrey, who holds an advanced degree in management from the University of Derby in the United Kingdom, works for the Indigenous Commercial Farmers Union and international associations involved in rural development.
 
“I feel a sense of responsibility to educate my people about this issue,” said Macharaga. “In America, we are exposed to a tremendous amount of resources, both human and technological, that we lack in other parts of the world and yet which are useful in addressing such monumental life-and-death matters.”
 
In the last 23 years, nearly 3,000 professionals representing more than 120 countries have participated in the Humphrey Program. This year, 147 Humphrey Fellows are spending the academic year, in groups of seven to 15, at 13 universities across the United States. UC Davis hosted the Humphrey Program from 1986 until 1996.
 
“The Humphrey Fellows program brings to our campus some of the most promising leaders, professionals and academics from countries around the world,” said Bill Lacy, vice provost for University Outreach and International Programs.
 
In the year ahead, the UC Davis Humphrey Fellows will concentrate on coursework, research and professional activities. Also, a series of seminars on topics of mutual interest to the participants is offered to the fellows, providing an opportunity to share new perspectives with U.S. colleagues and specialists. The scholars also travel throughout the U.S. to visit public and private agencies related to their professional fields, attend meetings and network with colleagues.

A diverse class of 2002-03

Marcia Varaschin is an economics planner from a southern Brazilian state. She’s in Davis to better understand how to improve the lives of rural farmers, and is studying under Desmond Jolly, the director of the Small Farm Center on campus. “I’d like to duplicate what I’m learning here back in my part of Brazil,” she said. “We have major issues with our small farmers — they need to enhance their incomes, find access to family services and add value to their crops.”
 
Jolly said while mid-career scholars like Varaschin make “major adjustments” to return to school — and then in a different country — many of them benefit from being “more experienced” and better able to understand how things work in the world.
 
Salah Chouki from Tunisia is interested in improving small farmers’ rangeland productivity through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS); Rajeev Arora from India wants to understand the challenges and opportunities of the World Trade Organization (WTO); Taleb Al-Harithi from Palestine is studying American wastewater treatment; Nasser Al Hosni is expanding his knowledge of water resources; Hintsa Bisrat is focused on rural enterprises; Erdenebat Eldev-Ochir from Mongolia, is increasing his knowledge about biodiversity; Maung Lwin from Burma is learning more about sustainable agricultural practices; Roberto Maria from the Dominican Republic is involved in animal health services; Oumoul Seck from Guinea is an attorney interested in mediation and arbitration; Nhlah Thabit from Yemen is concentrating on women’s issues and finance; and Gonca Undul from Turkey is focused on private sector development.
 
Faculty mentors like professor emeritus Alec McCalla find they learn as much as their students do. “This is my about my eighth Humphrey Fellow,” McCalla said about Arora, “and the most interesting thing for me is to interact with them as people and see how they think and feel about the world and our country.”

Foreign policy at its finest

Arora describes the Humphrey program as one of Uncle Sam’s finest “foreign policies” that is more than worth the cost. “It’s mutually beneficial in that different cultures are learning about each other,” he said.
 
Margaret Swain, an anthropology professor and director of the Gender and Global Issues Group, is mentoring Thabit. “She started a non-profit group in Yemen and comes to the U.S. with all kinds of credentials. She will return with new knowledge.”
 
Most of the scholars agreed that America’s technology is one of its greatest assets. Gonca said, “Yours is a strong educational system with all of its academic resources and advanced technology.” She also sees greater “faculty-student” interaction in American universities. “That’s not as true in other countries,” she added.

The non-academic considerations

It’s not an easy path for many of the Humphrey Fellows. While the campus waives their student fees, they receive a monthly $1,400 stipend, which is a tight allowance when factored in with the cost of living in Davis and the need to support families in many cases.
 
“I think the academic parts of this program work very well,” said Paul Marcotte, a lecturer in humanity and community development and Humphrey program director, “and the cross-cultural element is positive. But Davis with its housing is an expensive place to live, so this places great difficulty on many of our fellows, especially if they’ve brought families with them.” Marcotte said the program might expand next year to include more students in law, ecology and medicine.
 
“We’re all learning a lot from each other,” he said.
 
Program assistant Sasha Johnson said some Middle Eastern scholars have encountered additional obstacles in the post-9/11 era; and she spent several hours with a few of them at the Immigration and Naturalization Service site in Sacramento. As part of a new federal law on immigrants from selected countries deemed hostile to the United States, Humphrey Fellows were fingerprinted and questioned about their stay in America. “It was a horrible process for these people to go through,” Johnson said.