By Amy Farnum Novin, NCAA News


College football players are returning to preseason camps all over the country in the next few weeks, and Bentley College junior Tim Grovenburg will be going through rigorous training like all student-athletes to prepare for the football season. However, this year, he’ll enter camp with a little different perspective than most players.

Grovenburg recently spent a month volunteering in Arusha, Tanzania, working with women who have contracted HIV/AIDS and are struggling to provide for their families, while fighting the potentially fatal virus.

The defensive back from Wilmette, Ill., had always been interested in volunteering for those less fortunate in other countries, and began looking into different programs with a high school friend. They found an organization called Global Crossroads in Tanzania, and decided to go on the journey this summer.

“It was something I’ve always wanted to do, and something I felt I should do coming from a privileged country like America and being given an easy life compared to the rest of the world,” said Grovenburg. “I really wanted the experience of seeing how the rest of the world lives to mature a little bit. It was the right thing to do. It was rewarding both ways.”

Grovenburg stayed in a house rented by Global Crossroads for volunteers, and was provided a translator as he worked with a group named WOFATA (Women Fight AIDS in Tanzania). On a typical day, he and the other volunteers would do home visits in slums around Arusha, Tanzania, interviewing women and problem solving. They found most women contract HIV from their husbands, and are then widowed and left to care for their families.

“These women usually are traumatized because they just lost their husband, and then they get sick, and spend all of their money trying to get better,” said Grovenburg. “That’s when we would go in and help problem solve. A lot of these women aren’t educated and have no skills to make money. We would help them figure out something could do to work.”

One project Grovenburg helped with was assisting the women to sell handmade batik fabric to different vendors. The Tanzanian government had given WOFATA $500 to teach women how to batik – a popular way of dyeing textiles in Africa. The goal was for the women to start small businesses for a continuing source of income.

“Bentley is a business school, but the other volunteers over there were mostly pre-med and global health majors,” said Grovenburg. “I was the only business major, so it was funny that when I got there we were doing all these business projects like selling the batik fabrics. It was surprising that my major was one of the most helpful ones.”

Grovenburg was struck at the poverty and living conditions of the families in Tanzania – sleeping on floors in mud huts, so he was glad he could contribute his time to making their lives better.

“It was interesting seeing how bad it can get for some people,” said Grovenburg.

As he begins preseason camp, Grovenburg reflected on how football has been a great teaching tool for him in different aspects of his life.

“Before I went over there, I didn’t really know if I was prepared to make it in Africa for a month,” said Grovenburg. “A lot of the things I’ve learned in football really helped me be a better volunteer – things like dedication, sacrifice and respect.”

Bentley was picked to finish second in the Northeast-10 Conference’s preseason poll. The Falcons open the 2008 season on Aug. 29 against Millersville University.