LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - The international relationship between Lock Haven University and the Institute for Language and Communications Studies (ILCS) in Rabat, Morocco was highlighted at the Service-Learning Conference held at Binghamton University on Friday, Oct. 26 and Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007.

The conference, sponsored by Binghamton University, the New York Campus Compact and the Pennsylvania Campus Compact, featured speakers from New York and Pennsylvania colleges and universities involved in service-learning.

Goals of the conference included discussing community empowerment around issues of poverty and hunger; identifying the root causes of poverty and potential strategies to make a difference; discussing the effects of global inequities and disenfranchisement of marginalized populations; fostering the creative sharing of ideas to engage college students in the development of solutions starting within the communities in which they live and learn; and shaping a vision where community partners, students and faculty work collectively to be the change.

Anne-Marie Turnage, director of MountainServe, LHU’s center for rural community service and learning, and Dr. Aicha Lemtouni, director of ILCS, presented at the conference about the partnership between the two schools and their work to address nutrition and health among the Amazighen, a people living in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

The partnership between ILCS and LHU was first formed with LHU’s Institute for International Studies, and has grown to include service-learning opportunities in Morocco.

Last March, a contingent of LHU graduate students in the Physician Assistant program, as well as a group of undergraduates, visited Morocco and stayed in the village of Ait Lekkak in the High Atlas Mountains with a people called the Amazigh. The village of Ait Lekkak was identified by ILCS and Lemtouni as being a suitable location for community service projects. The Physician Assistant students conducted health examinations at a local school, while the undergraduate students conducted a community needs assessment.

Turnage discussed the trip and the findings of the Physician Assistant students at the conference, as well as other service-learning opportunities such as LHU’s visits to Zacatecas, Mexico, assisting at an orphanage and a nursing home there.

“I talked about our global service partnerships and how they have developed as an extension of our Institute for International Studies,” Turnage said.

Lemtouni focused on nutrition and women’s health among the Amazigh.

The service-learning experience in Morocco will continue as LHU students and faculty prepare to head to Morocco in spring 2008.

For Lemtouni, the trip to the U.S. was a chance to meet LHU students who were preparing to visit Morocco as well as interact with American students. While visiting LHU, she has participated in classroom and group discussions about her culture and experiences as a Muslim woman.