The founder and CEO of Saving Orphans through Healthcare and Outreach will speak on campus today after flying in from Swaziland, Africa on Wednesday night.
SOHO Founder Cynthia Prime will discuss her journey, mission and accomplishments with the non-profit organization at 6:45 p.m. in the Art and Journalism Building room 175.
Sara McInerney, Cardinal Communications account manager, said Prime is a great speaker because she is inspiring and entertaining.
“She really pulls at your heartstrings, so she’s really a great person to watch,” the junior organizational communications studies major said.
A child becomes an orphan every 14 seconds as a direct result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Afric, and there are over 15,000,000 orphans living there, according to the SOHO website.
The result is a growing number of children around ages 8 to 10 left responsible to raise their younger siblings, McInerney said.
McInerney said SOHO’s primary focus is to educate, heal, feed and nurture child-headed households over in Africa, mainly sub-Saharan Africa in a country called Swaziland.
Rachel Phillips, communications and academic liaison for SOHO, said the Indianapolis-based non-profit organization has had a close tie with Cardinal Communications since they began working together a few years ago.
“It’s really nice being able to work with students because they bring an entirely new energy and perspective,” Phillips said. “A lot of student contribution is related to a creative and innovative aspect.”
This year, Phillips said the group of six Cardinal Communications students, including McInerney, focused on expanding their social media and collegiate outreach. They also will provide free food from Puerto Vallarta.
She said the students she works with are passionate to serve both overseas and in their own community. To Phillips, this is an important attitude to have in order to help the orphans of Swaziland.
“[The orphaned children] are kind of an unknown population, and some say, for what little research has been done, they are kind of the new face of HIV/AIDS,” Phillips said. “And the population is growing and their needs are enormous. I believe that it’s a very significant cause because it reaches an entire population of kids.”
For more information go to savingorphans.com.
