Students boost dental health SDSU group provides educational aid to refugee community
WEDNESDAY May 2, 2012 Volume 97, Issue 114 W W W.T H E D A I LYA Z T E C . C O M
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SDSU’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT N E W S PA P E R SINCE 1913
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Ana Ceballos senior staff writer Two years ago, three biology students joined the Health and Dental Outreach project that aims to educate large groups of refugee children in San Diego about the importance of dental health care. San Diego hosts the second largest refugee community in the country. Many of these children belong to immigrant and refugee families from the Middle East and have received little or no education about dental health during their lives. The focus of this group is to provide the refugee children with both the education and materials needed to live life with a healthy smile. “We want to start early to prevent any danger to their dental health,” Health and Dental Outreach member, Claudia Hammi said. “We often give presentations to kids that have absolutely no knowledge of the basics.” The group is not recognized as an official student organization, but it has been awarded by the SDSU President’s Leadership Fund. This fund awarded the group $15,000, which it used to buy toothbrushes, library books and a giant mouth to serve as a visual aid during its presentations. Additionally, the group received a donation of 400 tooth-
(From left to right) Health and Dental Outreach program members Claudia Hammi, Valencia Zora and Natalia Zora. | COURTESY OF CLAUDIA HAMMI
brushes from the San Diego County Dental Society. The group’s main focus is to reach elementary schools throughout the county with the “most minorities and unprivileged backgrounds,” according to Valencia Zora, who also makes up part of the trio. So far, the girls have given countless presentations in various elementary schools and St. Peters Chaldean Catholic Church, with groups that vary from 200 to 700 kids. The group started working in San Diego after meeting with Rhonda Kalasho, who founded the Health and Dental Outreach at the UCLA in 2010. According to Zora, the most challenging thing is to talk to elementary school directors about allowing
them to give presentations during school hours. “But once (the presentation) is there and going, they really like it,” she said. “We try to make our presentations
really interactive so they can learn more from them,” Zora said. “And it really helps that we know Arabic and we can translate for them if there is something they didn’t get.”
“We try to make our presentations really interactive so they can learn more from them ... And it really helps that we know Arabic.” Valencia Zora, Health and Dental Outreach member
OPINION
The death penalty ban will appear on November’s ballot.
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Power outage Sex trafficking upsets Aztecs victim speaks SDSU spokesperson claims the school is not to blame Stephanie Saccente staff writer Students living on campus and College Area residents awoke Friday to find their water and plumbing was not working. While this was not a test nor a planned outage by the university, students campus-wide were unsure how to handle the situation. According to Greg Block, San Diego State director of media relations and new media, the sudden water shut-off was caused by a power outage at one of the City of San Diego Water Department’s pump stations. The pump that expe-
rienced issues delivers water to the La Mesa area as well as the university. SDSU had no control regarding what happened. Water was restored to affected areas Friday afternoon. Ashley Adams, SDSU freshman and resident of the Cuicacalli Suites, residence hall was surprised to find her water shut off that morning. “It’s confusing that the whole water system for such a large university could suddenly stop working. Shouldn’t our school have a backup plan for instances like this?” Adams said. Another SDSU residence hall resident Brandon Pierce, was also frustrated when he realized his residence hall room was experiencing problems. “When I first discovered what was going on, I was annoyed,” Pierce said. “I then realized that it would get fixed eventually and I had more important things to worry about.”
The sudden shut off of water was caused by a power outage at one of the City of San Diego Water Department’s pump stations ... Water was restored for affected areas Friday afternoon.
Elisse Miller staff writer As part of GiRL FeST San Diego, a lecture and panel discussion was hosted at San Diego State Friday titled “War on Women: Human Trafficking in the U.S.” GiRL FeST is a nonprofit festival with the purpose of “changing peer culture in order to prevent increasing violence against women and girls through education, art and positive representations of women.” The event began with a talk from sex trafficking survivor and former SDSU student Natasha Herzig, who gave an intense account of her abduction and time spent in the underground world of sex trafficking. Herzig was coerced into the situation when a woman stopped her at the mall and told her of an opportunity to train to become a makeup artist. After meeting the woman and the company’s “boss,” she agreed to the job and at a meeting to file paperwork, she was physically taken and thrown into a car. She then began her twoyear journey into forced prostitution. In 2003, the FBI released a list of 13 high-intensity child sex trafficking cities that included San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The event also included a panel discussion focused on what changes need to occur. When asked if the media has a role in allowing these atrocities to happen, Managing Editor of
10News San Diego, JW August said, “The images people see make a very nasty thing acceptable.” “We have begun to normalize what isn’t normal,” Executive Director of Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition Marisa Ugarte said. All panelists referenced music with lyrics commonly containing phrases such as “pimp” and “ho.” They also noted the glamorization of the prostitute, as seen in films such as “Pretty Woman,” when in reality “girls don’t ever see a penny,” Herzig said. The panelists spoke about another complex issue regarding criminalizing sex traffickers. “The biggest problem with victims is that they’re lousy witnesses because they’ve been so traumatized,” August said. Herzig expanded on August’s statement. After being trafficked for two years, she and two other girls working as prostitutes were taken into the police department. A “new girl” told them everything. Herzig was silent, and the girl with the most seniority in the prostitution ring fabricated a story to protect her and her trafficker. “It’s hard first to be a victim, then to be a victim of sex trafficking … Let’s get to the point where we don’t have to arrest these kids in order to rescue them,” Herzig said. While it is a sensitive subject, awareness is key in preventing the continuance of these crimes. Herzig encapsulated the event’s message by saying, “If we’re not talking about the issue, we’re not solving it.”
S DS -V I E W Tim Shelton shows his Aztec Pride opening for T-Pain at GreenFest.
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... Pinterest users have honed in on the site as a place to ... plan imaginary weddings and search for recipes they will never cook. B A C K PA G E
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W E AT H E R : PARTLY CLOUDY HIGH: 64 LOW: 52 SUNSET: 7:29PM