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Villanova Students Spread Out In Philadelphia For 8th Annual Saint Thomas Day of Service

By Kim Glovas

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)--Students from Villanova University will be fanning out across Philadelphia on Saturday for the 8th Annual Saint Thomas Day of Service.

Projects are planned at 150 different sites.

Before the projects began, students heard from Chris Mburu, who is a Senior Human Rights Advisor with the United Nations.

"I grew up in a very poor place in Kenya, in a very, very poor village and my parents could not afford to take me to school. It took the intervention of a Swedish woman to get me through school."

Mburu went on to get a law degree in Kenya, and his Master's in Law at Harvard.

"Today, we keep thinking that if we give it all away, you'll have nothing, but in actual fact, what I've discovered in my years of philanthropy, that the more I giver away, the more I actually get, not just in material terms but in terms of satisfaction, life, gratification."

Mburu grew up poor in a small village, and his education was provided by a woman in Sweden who heard about his case. He says that small act changed his life.

He says he believes it can happen every day by each individual in one small way.

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