The day started out with us visiting Los Ninos con Una Esperanza in the city of Santiago. The founders of the organization, Pablo Urena and Elisabet Ramirez, wanted to create an environment that was healthier and more positive for the children in the neighborhood of Cienfuegos, one of the poorest communities in the country.

There are currently 282 children, only of which the organization can support 200, meaning that 80 students are turned away. The mission of the organization is to allow children to grow up with a proper childhood, so not to grow up to be delinquents and later on the path to prison. After seeing and hearing about this organization, we were fortunate enough to glance into the lives of the locals.

We had a tour of a garbage dump and experienced the harsh conditions the people who live on the edge of and within the dump go through every day. We saw children without clothes and shoes whose playground is among trash that is in dump. We also saw the people who rely on the trash to live by digging through garbage to find items to sell, so they can eat.

Finally, we ended our day with reflections on whether or not it is possible for a community to get out of poverty. For us personally, seeing the kids and adults laying around naked and stepping on trash and contaminated liquids, allowed us to rethink our privileges and the choices that we make daily.

It was remarkable, as other students have commented on, to put a face to a statistic. Simply hearing that there are millions who live in poverty and work daily sorting through trash is entirely different than seeing it with our own eyes. In our everyday lives, we have extremely easy access to everything that these children and families pray for.

Traveling to Cienfuegos, Santiago was an eye opening experience that emotionally impacted all students to be much more grateful, appreciative, and thankful. It is imperative to recognize the power in numbers and the importance of fighting for what is yours (for the locals, their land and water). Because of their corrupted government, locals are forced to wake up without the knowledge of whether or not they will eat all three meals that day.

Locals have to face asking themselves and their families questions such as, where will we sleep? How much money can we make? Which meal should we prioritize to eat? It is incredible to meet people who go through this, and it inspires us to strive for success, so that one day we can give back as much as possible to communities suffering in poverty.