Rutgers students to travel on mission to Tanzania
By Chris Donahue
Staff Writer
NEW BRUNSWICK — Six Catholic students from Rutgers University will get an opportunity for spiritual and personal growth when they travel to Tanzania for a two-week humanitarian mission beginning May 24.
The mission, coordinated by the Brotherhood of Hope, will include six students from Boston University, where the Catholic community of brothers also has a mission, said Brother Ken Apuzzo.
Brother Ken and the students will be joined on the trip by Oratorian Father Kevin Kelly. Rutgers students making the trip are: Maureen McGovern, Leeann Brown, Christa Dilalo, Christophe Truong, Andrew Butler and Denise Fiore.
Roll up their sleeves
The group will work on two major projects: repairing and building homes of needy people, and working with orphans infected with HIV in the Village of Hope, both near the capital of Dar es Salam. The group will also work with students at a trade school.
The college students are paying for their travel costs by working or fundraising, which also teaches them organizational skills, Brother Ken said.
Among the Rutgers contingent is Christopher Truong, 23, a first-year graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in business administration. Truong said one of his tasks during his first trip to Africa will be giving computer seminars to children.
“It’s an opportunity to serve others. It’s definitely something that I wanted to do. The people need to see that other people care about them elsewhere in the world,” Truong said.
Sowing a seed
The idea for the trips came while Brother Ken was a student at Rutgers in the 1980s.
“I met a student from Tanzania and we became very good friends,” he said. “At that point he was Hindu. Over the years we communicated back and forth, and through our friendship he converted to Catholicism. We started talking about doing something for the country service-wise.”
Brother Ken suggested bringing college students because it would be a great cultural experience. The trip has been made by students from Boston University for seven years; Rutgers is making its first.
“The students here, their brand of Catholicism is mainly white, middle class, so it’s a very small sense of the church,” Brother Ken said. “So when we go there, all the missionary circles are Catholic. The church is just booming. It kind of opens their eyes to take things less for granted and get a sense of the universal church.
“For a lot of students their faith is reinvigorated, and when they get home they get confirmed or became more active in the church.”
How to help
A 20-foot-long shipping container is available to send supplies to Tanzania. Among the items sorely needed: baby formula, children’s summer clothes, school supplies, computers and construction tools.
To make a donation, call (732) 545-6663, or bring donations to The Catholic Center, 17 Mine St., New Brunswick. Monetary donations will help pay for building supplies bought in Tanzania (make checks payable to Brotherhood of Hope).
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law