“Is everything forbidden us except to fold our arms? Poverty is not written in the stars; under development is not one of God’s mysterious designs.”

What are the impacts, both positive and negative, that NGO’s/non-profits have in developing countries?

The theme of the day was Aid & Development, which mainly consisted of us going to the non-profit organization, NutreHogar, whose goal is to treat young children with malnutrition. It was our opportunity to observe the workplace, serve the children and employees in any tasks and roles that they needed help with, and research the more impacting changes that could be made through our Community Action Project (CAP).

Maruquel, the administrator of the organization, gave us much insight as to what a day in the center looks like and answered all of our questions about what the needs of the community and center are. Many of the staff work 48 hours straight and are in charge of cooking meals three times a day, accompanying and caring for the children at all hours, and generally cleaning and running the whole operation. Other tasks are bathing the children and ensuring they don’t get sick (or taking care of them even more attentively if they do). A big challenge is trying to ensure that the limited staff can perform all these tasks daily and continually. It is not unheard of for some of them to work 72 or 98 hours in a week. Being in the NutreHogar center provided a much needed insight as to how these individuals try and create a difference in the community by putting others before themselves.

The quote and question of the day were demonstrated through the rawness of the experience and in learning about the dedication of the women and men in this organization. There is certainly more that can be done by the community to support the cause, but the people of NutreHogar are not waiting for help in the meantime. The impact is shown through the high success rate of each child and the program as a whole. We were proud to learn and help and excited to deliver on our project.

The Global Glimpse group demonstrated courage when some students volunteered to sweep, mop, and scrub the kitchen as the other students attended personally to the adorable children. We demonstrated compassion through our cautious dedication in holding, playing, and feeding each child and making sure that they had a wonderful time. Lastly, we demonstrated commitment today by choosing project ideas for our CAP project that would not only be beneficial but sustainable.

Big Love! We would first like to give Big Love to the kitchen staff at Hotel Piamonte for ensuring we have enjoyable meals every day! We would also like to give Big Love to Amy, Bryan, and Montana for keeping us on track throughout the day. It helped maintain our focus in leading this amazing group.

Before we go, we would like to highlight the incredible activity we held tonight before our Nightly Meeting. To our surprise, we walked into the main room set up by our leaders which consisted of a darkened room lit by candlelight. After working on biographical poems called “My People” during the day, we sat in a circle and shared our stories. It led to many tears and a closer community. It was a great example of the 3 C’s. After closing the session with hugs and laughs, we finished the night addressing our theme of the day with some discussion on the United States and its influence and support outside of its own borders. We agreed that Global Glimpse offered a better way of discovery, design, and delivery in that process.

We have now passed the torch to Julia and Kaitlyn for our first FREE DAY and are heading to sleep! We hope to talk our families and friends tomorrow and the coming days.

Sincerely,

José and Leslie