Tigard teenager earns a World Vision trip to Africa

TIGARD-- Alexandra “Ali”Manzano of Tigard is one of four students from across America who will travel to East Africa in late June for a first-hand look at hunger and World Vision’s famine-fighting efforts in Tanzania -- where survival is not a game but a daily struggle for children and families.

Manzano and the other three students earned the trip through their participation in the World Vision 30 Hour Famine, a worldwide hunger-fighting program sponsored annually by the international Christian humanitarian agency.

Each year, students who raise $500 or more through the World Vision 30 Hour Famine are invited to apply for the study tour, which allows them to see how their efforts are providing help overseas. Trip participants are selected on the basis of an application, personal interviews and a 600-word essay on hunger.

Manzano, a junior at Tigard High School, said she applied for the study tour with a desire to learn more about how to be of service to a hurting world.

Manzano and the other three students will observe a variety of World Vision development projects under way in Tanzania, including the teaching of farmers new, effective growing techniques to increase their yields, teaching adults and village health workers about nutrition and disease prevention, and creating better community access to clean, safe water.

Upon their return, the students will serve as spokespersons for the 2002 World Vision 30 Hour Fa-mine, to take place in February 2002.

World Vision is an international, Christian relief and development agency working to promote the well-being of all people, especially children. Esta-blished in 1950, World Vision embraces the larger issues of community development and advocacy for the poor in its mission to help children and their families. World Vision serves 85 million people in nearly 100 nations.