While a forty-by-ten foot container filled with a tangle of 12,000 pairs of running shoes would have your average Foot Locker employee running scared, this past summer fourth-year Life Sciences student Jamie Keast could not wait to jump in with both feet.

This summer, Keast followed a container filled with basketball shoes and jerseys donated by schools in Vancouver to southern Africa. There she worked with Projects Abroad in Ghana as well as global not-for-profit organization Hoops for Hope in South Africa to provide school-age children with life-changing basketball and life skills programs.

On May 3, 2009, right after exams had finished, Keast and her then-boyfriend started on their trip to southern Africa by boarding a plane to Ghana, where they spent the first five weeks of their three-month trip in volunteer positions.

The couple flew into the capital city of Accra, where they would live in a local-run homestay with other international volunteers. After one day of orientation, Keast began her job in an orphanage in Ghana. As well, she spent her time giving presentations on behalf of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana and educating children in churches and schools around Accra about HIV/AIDS.

Toward the end of her trip, and after many hours camped out in a local internet café to research information on HIV/AIDS, Keast felt confident enough to present to groups of as many as 400 students.

From Ghana, Keast continued her trip by tracking down the Hoops for Hope’s container of basketball shoes in South Africa, where she helped keep kids off of the street and on the basketball court learning life skills through the program. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, the best decision of my life,” she said.

Although Keast has returned to the UBC campus for the 2009/2010 academic year, she is already making plans to go back to Africa. She will know whether her application to Go Global Uganda has been accepted for the upcoming summer within the next few weeks. In the meantime, she is continuing to work with Hoops for Hope in Vancouver, and saving money to pay for her upcoming trip.

“If I have to sacrifice those Fridays and Saturday nights out, I really don’t care,” she said. “I would do anything to be with those kids again.”

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