When senior Hannah Barry returned to Elon University after studying abroad in Ghana last Winter Term, she wasn’t quite ready to let go of the experience she’d had there.

“We came back and wanted to create an organization on campus where we can basically do international development projects for the communities we visited,” she said.

The Periclean Scholars program, a civic engagement group which students apply to participate in, focused on Ghana in the past, but Barry wanted a new option to be more accessible to all students.

When the group of students first applied to Student Life for recognition as an organization, the proposal did not pass, Barry said, because there was concern that other classes would want to create similar organizations for other nations, which would become overwhelming.

Instead, the organization applied again under the name Elon Partners in International Development, which is now under provisional status as an organization. The Ghana group is now one branch under the organization, with the option for the creation of other groups.

“The overarching organization will have chapters underneath it,” Barry said. “We’re the guinea pig organization and if others want to start their own country or concentration, they have to apply to get it passed.”

Any student can become involved in the group, whether they have traveled abroad to Ghana or not, a hallmark of the organization, Barry said, because it’s more accessible to students.

“Our mission is to provide opportunities for Elon students on campus to be involved in international development projects abroad,” she said.

The first project is the creation of a kindergarten in Ghana, first initiated by former Periclean Scholar and Elon graduate Bryce Little, who had limited success fundraising individually.

This week, Barry is also helping to man a table in Moseley selling products through ABAN, a non-governmental organization founded in 2008 by three students who took notice of the large number of trash and neglected children on the streets.

Senior Gretchen Honnold became involved with ABAN while studying abroad in Ghana. When she arrived back in the United States, she got in touch with two of the co-founders who live in Durham.

The Moseley Table will be set up from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Friday.