Spring 2004 - D'Youville College

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Female students pose at the Instiuto Carmen Conde Lombardo.
D'Youville students pose with Panamanian children.
PROGRAM ESTABLISHED TO AID PANAMANIAN CHILDREN
Pictured are members of POP at their "POP-
Luck" Luncheon fund-raiser. Standing (l to r)
are Jessica Beck, Shelley Wolfe, Dr. Olga Karman,
Amy Bahny and Colleen Hutton.
Seated (l to r) are Autumn Harris, Kelly Clarke
and Madeline Osborne.
For the past 12 years, D’Youville students,
led by advisor Dr. Olga Karman, have
visited very rural areas of Panama, as the
culmination of the spring semester’s Cross-
Cultural class. Although their experiences
in a foreign country may have been similar,
something very different was derived from
the students who visited the area last spring.
As a way to provide continued support to the
region they visited, the Panama Outreach
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Program (POP) was established on the
D’Youville College campus.
“We all decided that after we left Panama
we would not have any connection with the
people we met, who shared so much of what
they had with us,” said Amy Bahny, a senior
childhood-education major and president
of the program, who stated that “just feeling
bad” when they returned home was not
enough. “We wanted to help.”
Throughout the year, members of POP
held luncheons and bake sales to raise
funds for the impoverished region and the
children attending Instituto Carmen Conde
Lombardo (ICCL), in Penenome, Panama.
The students making the trip this year will
present the money raised at DYC in order
to the Panamanians to purchase books
and supplies as well as pay for any needed
maintenance or educational projects.
The main effort of ICCL is to combine
academics with rural training, including
growing crops organically, raising animals
and up-keeping one’s little acre.
“The children will probably be farmers and
wives of farmers, who have very little land in
which to grow enough to survive,” explained
Bahny. “POP will be able to provide not
only monetary support, but it will carries on
a continuous connection between our two
institutions.” Bahny added that she does
keep in personal contact with many of the
school officials she met on her trip.
POP does not set a goal on the amount
of money it raises, since any contributions
would benefit the very rural Central Highland
area of Panama. “We just try to raise as much
as we can and keep raising more,” said an
enthusiastic Bahny, who encourages all DYC
students to join the program. “You don’t
have to be Hispanic, Panamanian or even
speak Spanish. You just have to want to help
others!”
This year’s class is set to make its trip in
May, the week after final exams. In addition
to the classroom lessons, recess supervision
and maintenance assistance the students
provide at ICCL, the group will visit the
Panama Canal, the Chagres River Rain Forest
and Panama City. According to Karman, this
year’s trip will also include a jungle boat trip
and a ride on the Trans-isthmian Railroad.
For more information on the annual
Panamanian trip or to donate funds, please
contact Dr. Karman at (716) 881-7704 or at
karmano@dyc.edu.
–Susan Swiatkowski