service learning

Exploring Faith-Based Social Justice in Burundi

The following post was written by Rev. Eric Cherry, director of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s International Office. Cherry was one of the leaders of the UUSC-UUA Supporter Journey to Tanzania and Burundi. 

Service-Learning trips through the UUSCJ are a terrific way for UUs to get to know the social justice strategies and methods of partners around the world.  Many of the partners that UUCSJ interacts with through S-L trips are secular in their approach.  But, some of them are faith-based – and even Unitarian/Universalist.  In those cases, the experience for trip participants offers a unique opportunity to connect spiritual practice and faith with outreach ministries.   And, introducing the team of UUCSJ service-learners in East Africa to the leaders and members of the Unitarian Church of Burundi was a great example of that connection..    Together we explored the ways that Unitarianism is pursuing social justice work in Burundi.

The Unitarian Church in Burundi was established by Rev. Fulgence Ndagijimana in 2002 as a liberal religious alternative to the dominant Roman Catholic presence in Burundi.  Rev. Fulgence is, in fact, a former Dominican novitiate who discovered Unitarianism while studying in seminary.  After leaving seminary and pursuing a correspondence with a Unitarian minister in the UK he was inspired to start the church in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura.

Since then the congregation has grown in strength, numbers, and outreach ministries.  In 2011 the congregation dedicated the first Unitarian church building constructed in an African country in decades.  And it serves as a home for their church services, as well as a meeting place for activists.

The outreach work of the church has taken many forms including:

  • Capacity Building and Advocacy work with Burundi’s Batwa community
  • Domestic Violence prevention through workshops and other intervention
  • Supporting Micro-finance initiatives
  • Partnering with a local School
  • Establishing scholarship programs for University students
  • Leading a coalition of Unitarian churches in development in Francophone African Countries

All of the congregation’s work is done in the context of the slow recovery – and the struggle for truth and reconciliation – taking place in Burundi following its Civil War.  Burundi needs liberal religious leaders, and the Unitarian Church in Bujumbura is serving that role.

During the visit we were inspired by meetings with a former combatant who now operates a small restaurant, and a team of women who are operating a vegetable stall at the women’s market in the city – all beneficiaries of the church’s micro-finance initiative.

We also visited the local school that the church is partnering with.  Here, nearly 2000 primary school students have found a secure place to begin their educational journeys.  Through assistance from its partners, the Unitarian Church has helped the school bring electricity to its classrooms – and will now attempt to set up a water system for the school.

Participants in the University scholarship program also met with us.  They explained how nearly all of them were the first people in their family to attend University, and that completing a degree is the fastest way to escape poverty in Burundi.  We were inspired by the path they have chosen.

And, on Sunday, we gathered for church with 60-70 Burundian Unitarians.  The singing was fantastic, the prayers were social-justice centered, and the sermon by Rev. Fulgence was prophetic.  He took a text from Jeremiah which advised those surrounded by devastation to build up their cities, and display show signs of hope.  The members of the Unitarian church clearly appreciated and embrace his message.  We visiting friends are challenged to do the same as we return to our homes.

Cross-posted from the UU College of Social Justice blog.

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Eager Anticipation: Prepping for Trip to Africa

The following post was written by Evan Seitz, senior associate for service-learning programs with the UU College of Social Justice.

I am not graceful when preparing for trips. I fret about everything from which type of trail mix to bring to whether our hosts will meet me at the airport. However, for the upcoming UUA-UUSC supporter journey to Tanzania and Burundi my usual pre-trip jitters have been largely replaced by eager anticipation. I have never been to Africa, and I can’t wait to visit two great partners: the Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP), based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the Assembly of Christian Unitarians of Burundi (ACUB) based in Bujumbura, Burundi.

Tanzania is currently rewriting its constitution and our partner TGNP is working on including language on the human right to water in that new constitution. Our delegation will be meeting with TGNP leaders to hear firsthand their stories on this process. We will also be visiting community partners of TGNP that have struggled to access safe, sufficient, affordable water for daily human consumption. At the end of our visit with TGNP, we will be visiting a representative of the Tanzanian Water Ministry to express our hope for a successful inclusion of the right to water in the new constitution.

In Burundi, we will be meeting Rev. Ndagijimana Fulgence, the minister of the newest Unitarian Church on the African continent. ACUB has an active social outreach ministry, and we will be meeting with community members who have benefited from this service. There will also be plenty of time to meet with members of the congregation. I am personally most excited about attending the service on Sunday; it will be only my second Unitarian service outside of the United States.

I am also looking forward to spending eight days with a stellar group of supporters and social justice activists. The seven delegation members come from all regions of the United States and bring a wealth of knowledge and experience. Joining me as trip leaders are my colleague Eric Cherry, director of the UUA’s International Office, and Patricia Jones, manager of UUSC’s Environmental Justice Program. Return for more updates from me and other delegation members as this exciting journey unfolds.

Cross-posted from the UU College of Social Justice’s blog.

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UU College of Social Justice: Upcoming Service Learning Opportunities

With its official launch at General Assembly 2012, the mission of the UU College of Social Justice (UUCSJ) is to increase the capacity of Unitarian Universalists to catalyze justice.

A formal collaboration of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), the UUCSJ will assist UU congregations in discerning their focus for social-justice work, effectively harness collective UU power for change, and build capacity for moving justice forward through its domestic and international service learning programs.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS:

UU Holdeen India Program: Justice in Rural India
Trip Dates: November 26 – December 5, 2012
Registration Deadline: September 15

This first service-learning trip to India will explore Unitarian Universalist Holdeen India Program (UUHIP) partner Vidhayak Sansad’s ongoing struggle for justice for impoverished people in the region surrounding Mumbai. The 10-day experience with Vidhayak Sansad will involve field-based activities that include shadowing local social activists and documenting the organization’s achievements in villages where it is active. Documentation support is a crucial contribution that visitors can make to Vidhayak Sansad.

UUSC-UUA Supporter Journey to Tanzania and Burundi
Trip Dates: November 10 – 20, 2012
Registration Deadline: September 10

This trip is a chance for donors to witness vital on-the-ground human-rights work and to meet African Unitarians. You will learn about the work of the Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP), a UUSC environmental-justice partner, and be hosted by the Assemblée des Chrétiens Unitariens du Burundi/Assembly of Unitarian Christians of Burundi (ACUB), a UUA partner church.

For information on additional service learning opportunities, visit the UU College of Social Justiceonline!

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From the Road: Nogales

In preparation for Justice GA in Phoenix, Ariz., (June 20-24, 2012) the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) have jointly organized three Service Learning trips to the U.S.-Mexico border with our partner organization, BorderLinks. The first trip began on Tuesday, Jan. 24, and continued until Jan. 27. The delegation was led by UUA President, the Rev. Peter Morales, who encourages UUs throughout the country to participate in one of the Service Learning trips planned for April and May with BorderLinks. Below, Rev. Morales shares his reflections on a broken immigration system and glimmers of respite along the border for those deported. 

Speaking with Father Pete (yellow hat) in the comedor.

Father Pete greets our small delegation with a big smile and a loud voice. We arrive at the “comedor” (dining room) in the early afternoon to help serve a meal to people who have just been deported. The comedor is a simple room with a tiny kitchen (we Americans wouldn’t want an apartment with a kitchen that size). It is a simple ministry. They serve a meal to people who have been apprehended. The comedor, supported by Kino Border Initiative, is a short walk from the border.

We help serve meals to 70 people. The numbers are down from the peak a couple of years ago, but the migrants still come. Funny, the word “migrant” utterly fails to convey the reality of these Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Salvadorans. These are desperate people. It would be more accurate to call them economic refugees.

One man I see has his feet heavily bandaged and can barely walk. Having just seen the rugged mountain desert trails these people attempt to cross, I wonder that anyone makes it. I spoke with a man who had not been caught crossing, but had been deported after 18 years in the U. S. He leaves behind two children, both U. S. citizens. He was stopped for allegedly not wearing a seatbelt and taken into custody when he did not have a driver’s license.

Every day the comedor feeds them, offers a prayer and a smile. It treats these dejected people with respect. Father Pete, who has been at this for years, wonders when it will end.

Joining in prayer before the meal.

Back in Tuscon the following day we visit the federal courtroom that is processing around 70 undocumented immigrants as part of “Operation Streamline.” The scene is surreal after the comedor. Here is a vast, opulent, courtroom larger than most church sanctuaries. The immigrants are processed in a procedure no more personal than a transaction with an ATM. Each deportee has a court appointed attorney who stands there and does absolutely nothing–but collects $125 an hour. Operation Streamline is in a number of cities and costs about $3.5 billion a year. It was touted as an anti-terrorism measure. Last year 327,000 were arrested. Not a single terrorist has been caught. Not one in the seven years of the program.

If they have been caught before, the detainees are given prison sentences. Most of these prison terms will be served in for-profit prisons run by the CCA (Corrections Corporation of America). Prisoners appear handcuffed and shackled with chains dangling. As they shuffle up to the front of the courtroom the chains rattle. They clink again as they hobble out of the room. This happens every day.

The federal prosecutors and public defenders hate the process. The magistrate hates it. The marshals hate it. They are caught in a system they see as insane and a system they cannot control or even influence.

What has become of us as a people that we tolerate this?

Cross-posted from President Morales’s blog, Beyond Belief.

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Learning about Challenge, Progress, and Hope in Haiti

UUSC is partnering with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti, January 21-28. Trip participant Casey Aspin writes about day four of her experience in the post below.

The UUA-UUSC Haiti Volunteer Program is made possible through the contributions of UUA and UUSC donors and a generous grant from the Veatch Program of the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, in Manhasset, N.Y.

Day Four

This week is going by way too fast. We got an earlier start today. Job one was hauling rocks from a pile to a square trench, where eco-villagers dropped the stones into the neatly dug trench, splattered it with slush cement, repeat. I live in a stone house and admired the skill of the Haitian masons recreating what Irish peasants made in America 240 years ago. The foundations were sturdy and attractive. Next was hauling cinder blocks to lay on top of the foundations. Between us, we worked on three community kitchens (possibly more yesterday). I did a little mango sawing. Joel is eager for my e-mail and for money. I don’t blame him — I’d do the same in his shoes. (Did I say shoes? Sorry, flip flops.) But it isn’t my place — I told him we give only to MPP, which is his employer this week. This pilot village has been such a success that a Presbyterian group wants to finance four more. I told Joel there should be plenty more work.

After lunch we went to the market in Hinche. Very tough bargainers. We bought some supplies for the kitchens, but the general feeling was the fix was in. We managed to buy bowls, knives, and pots.

The upside of bouncing around in the SUVs is learning about my companions en route. Today I learned how Wendy Flick went from being a leader in a hospice program in Sante Fe to an organizer of international programs for a private foundation (whose donor supported the hospice). Her focus became Haiti and, when the foundation wound down, UUSC grabbed  her — a very smart move. She is fluent in Creole, she beams joy, the Haitians love her, and she’s a good organizer who has been in sync with UUSC’s modus operandi for a decade — we couldn’t have found a more committed, effective leader.

And then there’s Evens Mary, one of our translators. He moved from Haiti to New Jersey at age eight, later became a paralegal at a law firm, and returned after the earthquake to work with U.S. lawyers who came down to help Haitians deal with immigration issues. They learned about the prevalence of rape, so they shifted focus and are now working, with Evens’s help, to enforce Haiti’s seven-year-old law criminalizing rape. Evens said the police don’t enforce the law against rape and no lawyers have stepped up to demand justice for victims. So the U.S. team is pressing the Haitian courts and beginning appeals to the International Court. Evens is so committed to this work. I suggested that it is difficult for women to obtain justice if they don’t have power in the government. He agreed that is a problem in Haiti but said it is changing — slowly. Thanks to people like him!

Our afternoon was spent in the company of about 50 MPP students from two classes. One is working on erosion control, a major problem in Haiti, and the other is learning farming techniques to take back to their families. We had a lengthy Q&A that was interesting and inspiring for both sides, I think. Haitians clearly love their country, and it wounds them that it is portrayed negatively to the outside world. Their are doing everything possible to improve their country — saving and enriching soil, pumping water, conserving seeds, diversifying food sources — and they were tremendously pleased when we said we would go back to the United States and tell people about the beautiful gardens they are creating and of the hope they provide for all Haitians.

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A Work Day at the Eco-Village in Haiti

UUSC is partnering with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti, January 21-28. In the post below, trip participant Casey Aspin shares thoughts on working at the eco-village with local members of the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP).

The UUA-UUSC Haiti Volunteer Program is made possible through the contributions of UUA and UUSC donors and a generous grant from the Veatch Program of the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, in Manhasset, N.Y.

Day Three

The morning began with a discussion between the UUSC delegation and the people we came to work with — the families who live in the pilot eco-village being built by the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP). They came from all sections of Port-au-Prince, strangers to each other brought together by the need to escape tragedy and find a new life. After the teeming tent slums of Port-au-Prince, you can’t help but be happy for these 10 families, each with two to four children. The eco-village is the Haitian equivalent of Little House on the Prairie. These are urban people learning a new lifestyle, and they seem confident and hopeful. Their lives won’t be easy — the trip to Hinche to sell any surplus goods is not exactly a joyride. The roads here are more like boulder fields than roads. Our SUVs get by, with us being thrown around quite a bit. But people going to market are on foot or donkey or motorcycle cab.

Once the lengthy and formal introductions were over, with the eco-village leader expressing great gratitude for our work and interest in what UUSC is, we finally got to work. Everyone was pretty excited, and we set about it like we meant business — hauling rocks, mixing cement, sawing boards, and handing boards up to the guys on the roof. Everyone was busy the rest of the morning – which isn’t easy when you are trying to keep 14 volunteers, three translators, and three drivers engaged (plus four UUSC staff).

I would say we were pretty amazing in what we accomplished were it not for the Haitians, who worked long before we got there and who knows how long after we left. They never stopped for water or food. I don’t think I’ve ever seen people work this hard. Ever. Some live in the village. Some are day laborers. I worked with Joel, one of the latter. He stayed seven years in the Dominican Republic learning a trade (electrician) but couldn’t get work. He returned to Haiti and hasn’t done much better. He said you have to pay to get work. I haven’t been able to learn more about that. He has a wife and daughter in Hinche, and I think he walks round trip. We were sawing wide planks of mango wood into narrow boards that were probably destined for the roof of the community building arising next door. Mango wood is very hard. Many of the tools I brought are being used, but the saws are no match for the mango wood. We get through it mainly by the means of Joel’s brute force. I’m pretty slow, but I like giving him a break. Rev. Justin and Mike Carpenter (fittingly) are cutting boards next to Joel and me.

After lunch we visited a peasant house. Keep in mind that calling someone a peasant here is a compliment. They are the workers who seek to live life in harmony with each other and the earth. What we could learn from them! Our tour guide was a young man who is very ambitious to improve his lot in life. He’s a model MPP member — solar panels on his very modest house, tire gardens, roof-fed cistern to extend the growing season, rabbits, chickens, and guinea fowl. And fire in the belly. The saddest part of the visit was a walk through the parched fields (no rain here since October) to visit a small tire garden behind a house with no livestock. Three girls (in ninth and tenth grades) live there with their mother. Their father left four years ago. They walk two hours each way to school. The oldest wants to be a doctor, but they are in arrears on tuition and she can’t afford textbooks. She says if she has a notebook, she will copy lessons from someone else’s textbook. Her face was so sad that we all wanted to figure a way to help. Of course all requests must be funneled through MPP so we don’t encourage a culture of dependency.

After the tour, we drove down more mogul roads to Bassin Zim waterfall. I think I was too tired to enjoy the visit. We walked high above the basin to a cave accompanied by many young boys (and some not so young) who were pretty eager for money. The cave was beautiful and eerie and ancient — unsurprisingly a place where spiritual leaders convene.

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We Are One: Crossing Borders as Unitarian Universalists

In preparation for Justice GA in Phoenix, Ariz., (June 20-24, 2012) the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) have jointly organized three Service Learning trips to the U.S.-Mexico border with our partner organization, BorderLinks. Rev. Eric Cherry, Director of the UUA’s International Office, is taking part and offers his thoughts on this joint Service Learning trip.

The first trip will begin on Tuesday, Jan. 24, and continue until Jan. 27. The delegation is led by the Rev. Peter Morales, UUA President, who encourages UUs throughout the country to participate in one of the Service Learning trips planned for April and May with BorderLinks.

During the trip, the group will learn about and work with several organizations, including the following:

  • Scholarships A-Z: A network of students and advisors working to make education accessible for all students. They help connect students to available resources and train them to be their own advocates.
  • Samaritan Patrol (a.k.a. Samaritans): People of faith and conscience who patrol the desert at the U.S.-Mexico border on a daily basis during the hot months. At least one member of each patrol is a fluent Spanish speaker, and one is, ideally, a medical professional. Patrols carry water, food, emergency medical supplies, communication equipment, maps, and packs for travelers containing items necessary to survive in the desert.
  • The Restoration Project: An intentional ecumenical community that blends faith and action through social justice work. They sponsor the Greyhound Bus Project, giving hospitality to recently released immigration detainees and providing them with information and resources.
  • Hogar de Esperanza y Paz (HEPAC): HEPAC is a sister organization to BorderLinks and a community center in Nogales, Sonora. Programs offered at HEPAC include adult education and training classes, and the Child Food Security Program, which provides lunch to children and education for their families on nutrition and gardening. HEPAC also is home to a women’s cooperative that produces jewelry that raises awareness about deaths in the desert.

Please follow stories from the journey over the next week.

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Latin America, Service Learning, UUA/UUSC

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Standing Shoulder to Shoulder with Partners in Haiti

Kara Smith

The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is partnering with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti, January 21. In the post below, trip participant Kara Smith of UUSC shares her thoughts on the progress made so far and on the journey to help rebuild the community and lives of earthquake survivors in Haiti.

The UUA-UUSC Haiti Volunteer Program is made possible through the contributions of UUA and UUSC donors and a generous grant from the Veatch Program of the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, in Manhasset, N.Y.

I boarded the plane for Haiti this morning. As I packed and readied myself for the trip, questions ran through my head in a continuous loop, mostly about what it will be like two years after a massive earthquake struck.

Last Thursday our team was readying ourselves, going over logistics and schedules, and we paused for a moment of silence to reflect on the two-year commemoration. As I said a prayer for all those who perished and for those who survived, I said to myself, “This is why we do this work.”

Since the earthquake, UUSC has worked with partners as they work for a just recovery. I am privileged to work for an organization that understands the meaning of the human struggle for human rights. It is about helping one person at a time, treating them with dignity and compassion as we build together for a better future.

Today I am on my way to meet some of the amazingly brave and powerful people whose blood, sweat, and tears are part of the mortar of rebuilding Haiti — and making it a Haiti in which all who struggle for voice, agency, and inclusion in the recovery process are respected. We will visit with partners in Port-au-Prince who are working to ensure sustainable access to food, providing skills trainings and income-generation projects, and helping protect women and girls from gender-based violence. Then we will head to the Central Plateau to work with the Papaye Peasant Movement for a UUSC-UUA JustWorks service-learning trip.

I feel truly privileged to be a part of this journey, through the work that I do at UUSC and the opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with our partners on the ground. I invite you to join our webinar From the Ground Up on January 26 at 7:00 p.m. (ET) to hear a bit more about our trip and UUSC’s work in Haiti.

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A Way Forward: Reflections on Haiti

Tire gardens at MPP.

UUSC was excited to partner with the Unitarian Universalist Association on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti, December 3–10. In the post below, trip-leader-in-training Nicole McConvery of the UUA reflects on lessons learned in Haiti.

Cruising down the recently paved highway connecting the Central Plateau to Port-au-Prince, we drove through a land that’s bursting with life and movement. As we cut through the mountains and golden light of dawn, catching breathtaking glimpses of vast lakes, rolling hills, and industriousness of all shapes and sizes bustling along dusty paths, I reflected on the preceding week that we had spent in Hinche: mornings hauling rocks side by side with Haitians; afternoons meeting with the resourceful and inspiring minds of the leaders of the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP) who are changing lives and shaping the future of their country one tire garden, eco-village, and youth program at a time; and nights in fellowship and reflection with our brood of thoughtful and energizing trip participants.

It almost felt like a dream even though it was probably one of the more “real” experiences I’ve ever had. And, like dreams, I’ve been finding it difficult to articulate what I experienced to everyone back at home; there’s still much to process. But I’ll try to unload a few of the things I’ve been contemplating since I returned to Boston last weekend.

Haitian marketplace.Haiti is the most densely populated country in the Western Hemisphere and reading that as a quick fact versus experiencing it firsthand are two very different things. With so many people concentrated around one urban center, you can see and feel the struggle for space and resources all around you. It was market day as we drove back from Hinche, and the roadside depots were overflowing with buyers and sellers who come together once a week to negotiate life’s essentials; gaze upon this intimate slice of life from the true 99 percent and then contemplate the luxurious, gross absurdity of the stampede at Black Friday a few latitudinal degrees north.

As we walked through the streets of Port-au-Prince, I kept imagining a hybrid of Los Angeles and New York City; the devastating earthquake that razed this island nation in 2010 could just as easily have struck any of our precariously unprepared coastal metropolises. I was reminded of and humbled by the fragility of life all around me here, home, and everywhere, inspired by the resumption of life in the wake of such massive loss. And I thought a lot about the constant waste of resources that abounds in my country, state, city, and home kitchen.

Trip participants and MPP farmers.

Anytime I found myself lost in bewildered or guilt-stricken thought, a kind hand on my shoulder or a contagious laugh echoed in the cabin of our van and pulled me back; I remembered I was not alone in my experience. Probably the most significant lesson that was reiterated throughout every aspect of my time in Haiti was the absolute necessity of community — to survive, to process, to thrive — in this life. I compared the lightness of load bearing in the company of others with my arguably solitary day-to-day existence back home; I thought about the pervading sense of alienation that abounds in the first world, where neighbors are strangers and car culture is a description of interpersonal relations. It’s not sustainable. And without the social net, the interdependent web of existence that can catch and carry us when we fall, there is no future. But in Haiti, I saw people pulling together, fashioning homes from refuse; I saw farmers and leaders at MPP planting gardens in chaos, laughing and hugging and living. In Haiti, I saw a way forward and richness of spirit that we can all learn from.

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Welcome to Ghana: You Are Invited!

Erik Mohn

Beginning August 5, 2011, Erik Mohn, UUA Young Adult Spirituality & Service Consultant, began a 24-day journey to Ghana where he volunteered in a health clinic, a school, and an orphanage through Amizade, a global service learning organization. Here he reflects on the experience. 

So, I’m back from my trip to Ghana, and, understandably so, people want to know about my experience. When people ask me, “So, how was your trip?” I usually start by saying, “Well… It was amazing!” while secretly wishing I could teleport them to Africa for a month or give them a pill that would instantly transfer my experience into their soul. Sounds extreme, right? Yeah, I know, but at this point, it’s a pretty difficult question to answer in a few minutes.

Honestly, my trip to Ghana feels like a dream. It feels so real, and then so unreal at the same time. Even when I look at the pictures from my trip, I can’t believe I was actually there. From bartering in the market place, to roaming the jungle on a canopy walk, to weighing babies in the health clinic, to being chilled by the feeling of death in a slave dungeon, to eating fufu and banku on a bench in a back alley, to washing my own clothes, to debating gay marriage with the village chief, to taking river showers, the list of wild and life changing experiences is endless and my feelings and thoughts about them keep expanding daily. (more…)

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Africa, International Opportunities, Service Learning, UU Youth & Young Adults

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