A holiday in poverty

from The Cold Lake Sun

Tracy Dermott

A couple of students from Assumption Junior Senior High School are going to learn what it’s like to spend the holidays in poverty.

Youth Minister Kelly Henderson, along with a Grade 10 student and a Grade 11 student will be doing a mission in Mexico just days after Christmas. They will be joined by another eight people from Bonnyville.

The group will be travelling to Cuernavaca, Mexico and will be participating in service and social justice missions through the Cuernavaca Center for Intercultural Dialogue on Development.

"It’s not all about doing service work," Henderson said. "It’s about learning why we have to do the service work. It’s a two-fold program."

Henderson took a couple of students to the same area last Easter. That trip is what prompted this one.

"It’s so fulfilling," Henderson said. "It just makes sense."
She said the mission will help the students learn the facts about why 70 per cent of Mexico’s population is living in poverty.

"It’s also to educate us about what issues are at our own backdoors and in our country," she said.

Grade 11 student Rebecca Sakowich is one of the people going on the mission.
"I’m going because my friend went last year and she told me how much fun it is," she said. "Plus I just really want to go."

She said she’s also interested in learning about Mexico and how people live there.
"It’s going to be a different look on poverty," she said. "I know it exists, but I’ve never seen it in front of me, real-life, to that extent."

She believes the trip will open her eyes to her own situation and how she and the people around her live.

"I think I am going to get a new appreciation for the things that I have and how much I should be truly thankful for what I do have."

Henderson said while the people they visit might be poor financially, they’re rich in happiness.

"It’s because they are thankful for whatever they can give their children," she said.
Henderson said the last trip was a real eye-opening experience, and she was excited about the level of entrepreneurship the people showed.

"The last time we were there, we went to a recycling centre," Henderson remembered. "We saw that they did. It was all volunteers, but they are hoping to make it viable and pay wages to people coming into do work."

She said she was overwhelmed by the response the group received from the communities they visited.

In one town, the service project was to paint a kindergarten school and its playground equipment.

"That was so much fun," she said. "We got to see the children. They came back to the school to see the work we had done and each lunch with us."

The lunch was catered by local families, who brought all of the fixings to the playground and cooked food for the mission group right there.

With her last experience still fresh in her mind, she’s excited about taking these students on this trip.

The group will leave Edmonton for Mexico Dec. 29 and will return Jan. 7, 2008.
"We’re excited about being there for New Year’s," she said. "We’ll be about five blocks from a market square. We’ll be getting a lot of culture when we’re there over New Year’s."

But in order to get there, the group has to do some major fundraising -- the trip costs $2,200 per person.

"We’re getting awesome support," Henderson said of the group’s fundraising efforts so far. They are selling Fair Trade coffee and chocolates to help cover the cost.

They have also received gift certificates and other donations from local businesses and have been creating gift baskets that will be raffled off during a silent auction.
"We’re having a pancake breakfast here at the school Nov. 18 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.," Henderson said, explaining people will be able to come and make bids on the baskets and a number of other donated items during that time. Bidding will close at 1:30 p.m.

"We have an oil painting, stereo system, DVD player -- a huge variety of items," she said.

In addition to the coffee, chocolates and silent auction, they’ve also held bake sales and are collecting Canadian Tire money.

The Canadian Tire money is to buy sporting equipment, such as soccer balls, which are low on school’s budget priorities.

Anyone who would like to donate to the silent auction, buy chocolates or coffee, or help out in any other way, can contact Henderson at the school at 594-4050.