Bluffton University students are welcomed to school and challenged to raise awareness about the issue of public health.
150 first time and transfer students took part in the university's opening convocation ceremony. Each year, the university picks a social cause to be the focus of the year and this year they have chosen the issue of public health. The key note speaker for the convocation was Deogratias Niuizonkiza, a former Burundi citizen, that escaped genocide of his country in the 90's and went to America were he became an American citizen and is working on a degree from medical school.
In 2007, Niuizonkiza founded the nonprofit organization "Village Health Works" and has gone back to Burundi to set up medical clinic which currently services more than 55 thousand patients, majority of those who are women and children. He felt it was his job as an American citizen is to help other and help where he knew it was needed.
Deogratias Niuizonkiza wants the Bluffton students to understand they are the leaders of tomorrow and they need to continue to make changes in the world to make it a better place to live.
