Two Spiders recently completed trips abroad, where they designed their own projects as part of their $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace grants.

Ngan Bui traveled to Cambodia from June to July to conduct human trafficking workshops for nearly 400 youth, college students, and adults. Bui said an estimated 250,000 Cambodians live in conditions of modern slavery, which can include both labor and sexual exploitation.

“I am a firm believer that education is protection and prevention from human trafficking,” said Bui, who graduated this past May with a degree in business administration.

Topics included methods of trafficking recruitment, online sexual exploitation, internet safety tips, and at-risk factors.

As an undergraduate, she participated in the “Human Rights and Modern-day Slavery” Sophomore Scholars in Residence program, which inspired her to act on a cause she had been drawn to since high school.

“In Cambodia, I loved seeing participants engage in insightful conversations at every workshop. Additionally, it was amazing to witness the strong collaboration between different NGOs and community members, all sharing a common vision in eradicating human trafficking,” she said.

Bui is now pursuing a doctorate in healthcare services organization and hopes to conduct future research on the interconnection between human trafficking and healthcare services.

Meanwhile, in Kenya this summer, Elspeth Collard worked with a Maasai community to set up predator deterrent lights. As workers drove metal poles into the ground, and Collard attached the solar lights, the villagers would tell stories about their encounters with wildlife — “Here’s where we heard seven lions last night; there’s where the hyenas prowled last week.” Some stayed up at night to protect their livestock.

The tribesmen in the southern Kenyan village of Kimana are getting more sleep these days, thanks to the installation of nearly 200 lights. A Maasai boy, Richard Turere, invented the technology, known as “Lion Lights,” which flash intermittently and scare off lions and other large predators. The lights allow the locals to live peacefully with the wildlife.

Collard wrote the grant for the project with a recent Gonzaga graduate. The pair met on a Kenya study abroad trip in 2021.

“We got immediate anecdotal feedback from community members days after installing the lights that predators had kept a distance from bomas, which are the homesteads, with lights installed.” More feedback will be collected every six months for the next three years.

Collard said a highlight of the trip was the first boma or homestead where she helped install lights. As she attached a light to a pole, a male member of the boma watched. Then, he put his hand out for the next light.

“I became someone behind the scenes, unwrapping and handing the lights to him as he attached the rest of them to his liking,” Collard said. “We were even able to test the lights by putting a hand over their light sensor to mimic the darkness that triggers the light to flash. It was my first time seeing the community take ownership of the idea in a way that made me extremely excited and relieved.”

After being in Kenya for one month, she started another journey two weeks later in Laos as a Luce Scholar. She is attending an intensive language learning school in the capital, Vientiane, then will begin a year-long internship at a local NGO.

She plans to go to graduate school and hopes to work with a non-profit or NGO exploring environmental health justice, advocacy for marginalized communities, and the use of geography as a medium to analyze and communicate these issues. 

“My experiences at UR have shaped my career choice,” she said. “I was able to conduct research with Dr. Stephanie Spera and Dr. David Salisbury on their NASA SERVIR Amazonia research team, which developed my passion for geography and using it to support the voices of marginalized communities."