A group of eight University of Ottawa students left for Malawi, Africa on June 3 to participate in a six-week internship with a HIV/AIDS prevention project.
Alyssia Brian, a third-year nursing student, is part of the group called the Ottawa Student Health Initiative (OSHI). While in Malawi, she is contributing to the work of Nkhoma Synod, a resource center for the prevention of HIV/AIDS among youth in a rural area of Malawi. The HIV virus affects an estimated 15 per cent of the Malawian population.
The OSHI is a charitable organization comprised of students from the faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences. Since its inception in 1989, OSHI has sent more than 100 students to developing countries including Burundi, Malaysia, Philippines and Malawi.
The OSHI 2005 internship is coordinated by Uniterra, a joint initiative of the World University Service of Canada and the Canadian Centre for International Studies and Cooperation. It is supported by the Canadian International Development Agency.
