Safe Passage- Camino Seguro

Safe Passage/Camino Serguro Tour

Thursday, 29 November 2012

Hope & Opportunity through Education

Safe Passage began in a small church but moved in to this building for more space.   This building houses the health center, nutrition counseling, counseling and supports groups.  The older children attend school in this building.  

Hanley Denning, a teacher  from Maine, traveled to Guatemala to learn Spanish.  Hanley visited the Guatemala City municipal garbage dump and watched the children picking through trash in the dump was a life-changing event for her and for the community around the largest landfill in Central America. She called her parents and told them to sell everything she owned in 1999 so she could start Safe Passage.  Hanley began her work in a small church across from the garbage dump, providing food and educational activities for the children.  The church was too small so they moved to the building above.   On January 18, 2007, Hanley died tragically in a car accident, but thanks to her many supporters, volunteers, hard working staff and a Board of Directors committed improving the quality of life for the children and their families.  Safe Passage supports more than 550 children from ages 2-22, representing more than 300 families, and achieves an indirect impact on the entire dump community.   Safe Passage provides health and nutrition, counseling and support groups and vocational training.

Front entrance to the pre-school.  Tour director, Steve, Sister Johnson, Ann Brown, Sister Call, Sister Wilcox, and a young man from Finland.

School is out for the summer break and volunteers are scrubbing and cleaning all  furniture, toys and etc.  These young women are volunteers who assist in the school.    

Educational activity chart - each child picks four activities for the day and rotates from station to station.   They are accrediting a class at a time - 1 grade just received their accreditation certificate.  These are preparatory activities to prepare them for school.

Art work of  the students.

Section of the garbage community..

Adult education building.  Parents of the children have an opportunity for vocational education.  They must  a have student enrolled in order to participate in this program.  There is a lady 84 years old participating in the vocational program

Pictures of women participating in the program.

Mother's making their jewelry for CREAMOS store.

This young mother of 6 children graduated  from the program.  She is currently making ornaments/jewelry made from recycled paper to sell.   They have a store, CREAMOS,  that sells jewelry made from recycled paper  the women make.  The women received the proceeds from their items sold in the store.    

Roof tops from part of the community.  

There are 20,000 to 30,000 people who glean through the garbage to find recyclables ranging from bottles, plastics, cardboard and etc.   They do not allow families to live in the dump any more and you have to be 14 years and older to enter the dump. When a truck enters the dump, they people know which trucks pick trash from certain areas of Guatemala.  As the truck enters they will put their hands on the truck and walk with the truck as it backs into position to dump, about 8 people on each side, that  indicates to others they get first pick.

Garbage community with all their recyclable items lining the streets.

Recycling area located outside the walls of the dump.

Entrance to the recycle plant.

Garbage lines the streets of this community.

A lady leaving the garbage dump.  We stood on the banks of the cemetery and watched as they gathered their items, dragging their sacks filled with food, recyclable items to a designated area to be removed from the dump and taken to their homes.

Immaculado Corazon De Maria - another organization educating the children from the garbage community.  We've seen the children from this school.   Featured in a previous blog.
Enlightening tour - Hanley had a dream and a desire to help these people.  Her life was cut short but her dream lives on through the dedication and hard work of volunteers.

Their Mission Statement:
Safe Passage empowers the poorest at-risk children whose families live in the Guatemala City garbage dump community, by creating opportunities and fostering dignity through the power of education.