- Description
- UU Connection
- Comments
- Backers
Safe Passage/Camino Seguro is a top-rated charity working in Guatemala City since 1999 to bring hope, education, and opportunity to the children and families trying to make a living around the city’s garbage dump—one of the largest landfills in Central America. Their mission: “We help children in the Guatemala City garbage dump community break the cycle of poverty through education, emphasizing life skills and perseverance in order to thrive in work and contribute to their community.”
Our group of UU youth and adult leaders will serve as Support Teams at Safe Passage for a week, engaging with “affiliates of all ages – from the littlest learners in the Jardín to the women in Creamos.” We will learn about Safe Passage and their programs while we provide valuable assistance: in English classes, as classroom assistants, planning and leading activities in our Escuilita English classes, meeting and working with the women-artisans of Creamos (buying their fabulous jewelry), and supporting the operations team with much-needed tasks, etc. It is a hand-on opportunity to see how an organization clear in its mission can make a difference, and give us the opportunity to do so as well by showing up and helping out.
Our MidMaine YoUUth group has been preparing and fundraising for this trip for the last 18 mos. Last year, we studied about and engaged with our Wabanaki neighbors, learning about our shared, painful history. This year, as we prepare to go to Guatemala, the lessons from Maine are helping us understand more about the conditions for indigenous people in Guatemala, including discrimination, poverty, and lack of education. and opportunity. Our time with Safe Passage will change our lives.
The participants each make a personal contribution of $600, collected over two years to ensure it is affordable for any of the youth in our congregations who want to participate. These personal dues cover about 25% of the total cost. The rest we raise through an ask to our individual friends and family, as well as the members of our four congregations. This Faithify campaign is a way of extending the reach of our ask throughout our UU denomination, while spreading the word about Safe Passage/Camino Seguro (https://www.safepassage.org/) and our collaborative youth program. We are proud of what we have and will accomplish together!
Project UU Connection
Our Youth come from four mid-coast Maine UU churches: First Universalist Church in Rockland; Unitarian Universalist Church of Belfast; Unitarian Universalist Church of Ellsworth; and Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor.
We have been working collaboratively in a number of ways for the last 10 years, including our MidMaine YoUUth program. On a three year rotation we do a US based project, a Maine based project and travel to Safe Passage in Guatemala. This is the third cycle with Safe Passage, and we know deeply what a transformative experience it is for our youth. While in Guatemala, we have nightly check-in circles and youth led worship. The Support team approach used by Safe Passage is founded on the idea that paying attention to, playing with, and loving strangers, in this case children whose families' livelihoods and lives are centered around the enormous Guatemala City dump, can change not only their lives, but also our own. This is a powerful lesson, and one that flows directly from our first UU principle, belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person.
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03/09/2020$50.00
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03/07/2020$50.00
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03/06/2020$200.00
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03/05/2020$25.00
