BY ALEX BIRKETT
Every year, most college students spend their spring break either at home relaxing, or on vacation somewhere warm with friends or family. While everyone has earned their week-long break, some students choose to travel and work rather than relax for the duration of break.
Stonehill’s H.O.P.E. is a service immersion program through campus ministry that holds a number of trips during winter, spring, and summer breaks. These trips are led by student leaders who work with the group leading up to the trip on educating everyone about the justice issues that the group will encounter and focus on during the trips. Some of the social justice issues focused on include; poverty, disabilities, immigration, and more.
This year, the H.O.P.E program volunteered their time off to travel to Canto Grande, Lima, Peru where we worked with a few local schools, including Fe y Alegría and Yancana Huasy, where the group worked to rebuild a few of the physical locations, and inspire students' hope.
During the week, the group of Stonehill volunteers worked tirelessly to replace roofing over the playgrounds, as well as repaint some of the playground equipment. More specifically, a mural was created by the hope group of the surrounding community. In the mural, a mountain with some of the student’s homes were depicted. A few elements from the former mural were incorporated into the new mural as well. It was a creative way to unite the old with the new.
The group was able to learn about a few families from the surrounding areas as well. Listening to their stories of struggling with poverty and disability helped members to reflect on their purpose at the time in Peru. Their stories also helped the group to reflect on their own academic experiences. Learning about the different governmental and educational systems in Peru compared to here helped the group to reflect on their own fortunes, and helped us become more aware of what we value. Bringing this back to share with our own little community has been rewarding in itself.
One of my favorite aspects of H.O.P.E. trips is the reflection held at the end of everyday. Reflection is the safe space made by every group to discuss what happened during the day, the issues we encountered and how we encountered them. The reflection space is always so special because if created in the right way it allows you to be vulnerable to your experience in a way you wouldn’t otherwise. A great group that creates a special space for reflection is something that could really deepen the meaning and memory of the trip, and it transforms H.O.P.E. trips in a way that can’t be recreated anywhere else. It’s what makes H.O.P.E. so special.
All in all, the group had a successful and incredibly rewarding trip to Peru. We were fortunate enough to meet new people, help those people, have been helped by those people, and reflect on our own lives and experiences in the process. The week spent with the small communities will forever be an experience I treasure.
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