Imagine an enormous garbage dump with thousands of vultures swarming around....the smell is horrifying....the top of the dump is a cemetary reminding people of death everyday...and thousands of people being dependant of the dump for jobs of digging through garbage to find things to recycle and resell....they are actually in the dump using their own hands and feet right in the piles of garbage where the trucks are dumping off loads every minute....chemicals are being exposed of in the same exact place where moms are walking with their children to gather anything they can find to sell....this is their life. This is all they know.
We had the priviledge of meeting and donating things to a mission called Safe Passage, which is an organization that is trying to break the cycle by providing children of the dump with a safe place to be with education, love, and food while their parents are working in the dump. They also provide an adult literacy program and a woman's entrepreneurial program where they teach the women how to make jewelry with recycled things that are coming from the dump. This helps to keep some moms from having to devote their lives to working in the dump. One of the leaders of Safe Passage kept reinforcing the concept of how important dignity and self esteem is to every person and how we must all do our part in helping those that are less fortunate realize that every person matters. The people working in the dump are seen as Guatemala's "lowest" society, however they matter to God and they need to matter to us as well. (http://www.safepassage.org/)
Our team also was able to go into the slums of the dump and hand out food bags and small toys to the children that live there. As soon as we started handing out a few matchbox cars to a few little boys, we began to be swarmed by tons of kids and adults as well. They were looking for anything we had to give. As much as it was overwhelming to see this many people in such a need, it was also a blessing to be able to help these people in such a small way.
One family specifically stuck out to us because we actually were able to visit their "home." Seriously, this was the worst we had seen....as we peeked in, all you could see were piles upon piles of garbage brought from the dump. The adults were sorting through it, while the kids sat outside. We were drawn to these two precious kids and were able to give them stickers, silly bands, glow sticks, and new backpacks that people donated. They were beyond grateful. As we were pulling away in our van, we saw the two little kids running after us as happy as could be...such joy on their faces.
a peak inside their home...
seriously sooo thrilled with their new backpacks!!
hopping down the road following our van with the biggest grin :)
