By Lindsay VanHulle
lvanhulle@record-eagle.com
May 17, 2008 04:00 am TRAVERSE CITY -- On a recent trip to Guatemala, Brooks Vanderbush prepared for an eye-opening experience working with impoverished young children. He never thought it would change his life. But Vanderbush, 27, plans to return soon for a yearlong commitment with the same organization that allowed him to volunteer, working to get its message to as many people as possible. He and nine other Northwestern Michigan College students recently returned from a weeklong service trip with Safe Passage, an international organization that pairs volunteers with children and families who work in the Guatemala City dump. The program, started in 1999, offers education and other activities for children, including arts, music and play, with the hope that they will gain the necessary life skills to lift them out of poverty. It also provides adult women the chance to learn to read and write. "You actually feel like you're making a difference," Vanderbush said. "You can see your work, what little work we did in a week, you can see it taking root and starting to grow." Guatemala is the largest Central American country in terms of population, but more than half of its people live in poverty, according to the CIA World Factbook. In Guatemala City, its capital, many of the poorest residents work at the city dump. It contains not only trash, but biohazard waste from hospitals, toxic gases and other dangerous materials, said Ashley Tarver, 26, a student volunteer. Residents gather what they can and sell it to be recycled. "It tends to be what the family does for the rest of their lives," said Mary Pierce, an English instructor who advises the college's Safe Passage student group. "It's an ongoing existence." Students formed the group this school year and raised the $13,450 required for the trip, Pierce said. About 25 students are members, but only 10 could travel. They studied Central American history and culture, politics and Spanish language before they left May 4. By the time they returned a week later, they helped each child design a square to be made into a quilt. Tarver said working with Safe Passage made her aware of how other people lived, and feel more fortunate for the things she took for granted, like access to education. "It just made me realize that there's a whole other world outside of my comfortable life," she said. "It made me want to be a part of something bigger."
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