Volunteering as a Way of Life
Amy Dunaway (SPH’08), a former Peace Corps volunteer, still helps the Cameroon village where she once lived.
Amy Dunaway (SPH’08) recently helped Cameroon teacher Zra Gabriel replace the stone seats in his classroom with wooden desks. Dunaway’s personal interest in improving Gabriel’s classroom stems from her time as a volunteer in the Peace Corps, when she counted Gabriel among her students.
Dunaway, an administrative assistant at the School of Social Work, and her husband, Peter Holtgrave (SPH’07), were Peace Corps volunteers from 2002 to 2004 in Cameroon, where they met and married. They worked at the Teacher-Training College, which trains future educators in English, didactics, lesson planning, and health education. “There are some really tough days when you’re sick, or people aren’t very nice to you, or the weather is ungodly,” says Dunaway. “But then there are those wonderful days.”
To make sure the desks were made for Gabriel, Dunaway and Holtgrave sent money to a current Peace Corps member. “It’s really hard to get money there because corruption is pretty rife,” Dunaway says. She and Holtgrave also plan to build a well in the Cameroon village where they lived for two years.
After Hurricane Katrina forced them to leave Tulane University last year, Dunaway and Holtgrave came to Boston University to complete their master’s degrees in public health. “BU was wonderful during that whole experience — and we contacted lots of programs all over the U.S.,” says Dunaway.
Despite working full-time and attending classes part-time, Dunaway still finds the energy and time to volunteer locally. She tutors English to a Haitian man, whom she met while volunteering with Catholic Charities USA.
“It’s nice to be able to connect with someone of a different culture, and help,” she says.
Brittany Jasnoff can be reached at bjasnoff@bu.edu.