Alumni Profile

Kim Freeman: BA, 2004

Communication skills put to work helping AIDS orphans in Ethiopia

By ANNALISA GIUST
UW News Lab 2/28/07

After graduating in journalism from the UW in 2004, Kim, now 24, moved back to her home state of Colorado. Here she began a master's program at the University of Denver in 2005 in International and Intercultural Communications. She is also pursuing a certificate in Global Health Affairs.

Handing out hygiene kits with girl scouts in Ethiopia. Kits made by girl scouts in San Diego, CA. (Click to enlarge)

In the summer of 2005, Freeman designed her own internship helping AIDS orphans in Africa. Currently a grad student, she spent the summer with an international organization in Ethiopia.

In order to create the internship, Kim contacted the director of PCI (Project Concern International). She set up a situation in which she could be in Ethiopia for two months writing, editing, and doing photography for promotional materials for PCI in partnership with a variety of in-country health organizations that help AIDS orphans and at-risk children. This internship was Kim's third trip to the African continent and when I spoke with her recently she told me, "This [Africa] is really where my heart is."

Kim spent the majority of her internship in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. While abroad Kim kept a daily computer journal and sent entries to friends and family so they could share in her daily adventures. She sent me a few of her journal entries to help describe her experiences.

Visiting some urban garden sites in Addis Ababa (Click to enlarge)

These ranged from the 23-hour trek from Colorado to Ethiopia, to buying fruit at the neighborhood fruit stands, to trying to find a gym to work out in, to excursions outside the capital city. In her journal Kim noted that more than 1.5 million Ethiopians are estimated to have HIV. She also describes seeing groups of women going to and from the funerals of family members and friends on a daily basis, just one of the effects the disease is having in this country.

Kim's reasons for going to Africa, outside of an internship requirement for grad school, are evident from speaking with her and reading her journal. She describes the first time she made in-home visits with PCI's partner organization, Addis Development Vision. She relates the utterly desperate conditions of children with disabilities in circumstances that by American standards would be akin to child abuse. In this very poor country, they are just par for the course.

Kim's sense of hope shines in every line she writes; her acknowledgment of a smile, a disabled child's small and at the same time monumental achievement is related in her journal. When I was able to briefly speak with Kim on the phone I could hear in her voice the enthusiasm and dedication she brings to this work and area of study that she is so obviously passionate about.

I asked her if there were any stories that stood out in her mind and she shared an event that occurred toward the end of her internship. She had gone to visit a mother and daughter, both living with full-blown AIDS. This particular visit enabled her to put faces to the disease; to see and interact one-on-one with people who are affected by it daily. "It is impossible to see these people and not want to do something," she said.

Kim isn't entirely sure what her plans are after graduation this spring. She absolutely wants to return to Africa. She is looking for work that combines communications with global health issues. This could mean working stateside for a nonprofit health organization, or a non-government organization in Africa, or a term in the Peace Corps.

Kim Freeman is definitely a young woman who will figure out how to do it. As she told me, "This does help people."