Alternative Spring Break Trip March 2-8-2012

Do you know that the number of new HIV infections in Los Angeles has doubled over the past year?

Do you know that nearly half of the cases are among young people under age 25?

Would you like to help improve the lives of people affected by HIV disease?

Are you interested in reducing the incidence of HIV infection?

Would you like to learn about advocating for fair and effective HIV related public policy?

The Bonner Office of Community Service & Student Development believes that it is important for us to allow students the opportunity to improve their leadership skills, impact a community and learn how they as individuals can affect a global cause by dedicating their Spring Break to service. This year's trip will take place March 2 - 8, 2012. We are returning to Los Angeles, California to work with AIDS Project Los Angeles and the Black AIDS Institute. Ten students were selected based on their application and interview. Each student has a true passion for service and the effects of AIDS/HIV on our community.

Black AIDS Institute

Founded in May of 1999, the Black AIDS Institute is the only national HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on Black people. The Institute's Mission is to stop the AIDS pandemic in Black communities by engaging and mobilizing Black institutions and individuals in efforts to confront HIV.

The Institute interprets public and private sector HIV policies, conducts trainings, offers technical assistance, disseminates information and provides advocacy mobilization from a uniquely and unapologetically Black point of view.
Our motto describes a commitment to self-preservation: "Our People, Our Problem, Our Solution."

AIDS Project Los Angeles

AIDS Project Los Angeles is dedicated to: improving the lives of people affected by HIV disease; reducing the incidence of HIV infection; and advocating for fair and effective HIV-related public policy.

Volunteers at AIDS Project Los Angeles, who range in age from 12 to 85, increase our capacity to serve the community ten times over. People of many skills and backgrounds come through our doors every year, as teams or as individuals, for assignments from phone banking to bagging groceries to leading therapy sessions. Each year, APLA benefits from the work of 1,500 volunteers who contribute more than 65,000 hours of service annually at a value of $1.1 million per year.

Alternative Spring Break 2010

Students Help Protect Endangered Sea Turtles in Costa Rica

Eight Spelman students, two staff members and one professor for the environmental studies department will travel to the Talamanca region of Costa Rica to help guard nesting turtles, learn to identify turtle tracks, count the number of eggs, record tag numbers and assist with relocating the eggs to the local hatchery.

By volunteering, students will be able to interact with the Talamanca Community in a way that improves both the students and the Community. As the students participate in the Leatherback Sea Turtle Conservation Project, they will actively meet the needs of the Talamanca Community, develop practical skills, self-esteem, and a sense of civic responsibility.
Students can analyze how predation and human interference, and coastal erosion affect the social, economic, and political systems in Costa Rica.

Here's Why:

For over 150 million years, sea turtles have roamed the Earth and now due to human evolution, all species are either threatened or endangered. In groups too numerous to count, these creators once navigated throughout the world's oceans. But in just the past 100 years, demand for turtle meat, eggs, skin and colorful shells has dwindled their populations.

Destruction of feeding and nesting habitats and pollution of the world's oceans are all taking a serious toll on remaining sea turtle populations. Many breeding populations have already become extinct, and entire species are being wiped out. There could be a time in the near future when sea turtles are just an oddity found only in aquariums and natural history museums — unless action is taken.

The main objective of the project is to protect the nests from human poachers and more recently from the erosion of the beach. Before the project began, the poaching rate was over 95% but with the presence of our night patrols and the hatcheries on the beach, the survival rate has increased to over 90% last season.

The nesting season runs from mid February through mid August each year. The number of nesting adult female turtles arriving on the beach drops off from June until the end of July. Each season, as part of the conservation effort, the project recruits volunteers, both national and international, to help in the research and conservation work

The Role of the Volunteers

Volunteers will also monitor the hatchery, as well as other nests left on the beach, and safeguard the hatchlings on their first journey to the ocean.