Ten St. Jean de Brebeuf students (6 female, 4 male), two teaching personnel and one administrator will travel to Uganda for a one week service learning experience from March 6th to 17th, 2012. Students will visit the Nsambya Babies Home Orphanage, the Kankobe Childrens Home, and the St. Joseph‘s technological school supported by the ?Walk With Christ? annual pilgrimage, and will immerse themselves in village life and work (eg. chicken coop construction, working with young students, infrastructure projects, etc).
The purpose of this educational trip is to provide students with an opportunity to serve and learn more about the day-to-day reality of individuals in lower-equatorial countries and assisting the truly marginalized communities of our world through various humanitarian projects. Students will also have the opportunity to learn about gender and socioeconomic differences in Uganda. Some of the students selected for this program will themselves be from socio-economic backgrounds that might not allow them to experience an opportunity like this due to their financial situations. The participants are motivated by a desire to work with others and place their faith into action cross-culturally. We will be utilizing as many local resources as possible in order to support the local economy and to encourage self-sustainability. More specifically, we will purchase some of our supplies and materials from women who own their own businesses through micro-commerce loans.
Many of these women are HIV/AIDS widows and in many cases, are carriers of the disease themselves. We will be supporting their small business so they can in turn support their families. This is truly a service learning experience where the students can implement the teachings of the Gospel through their humanitarian work, with the goal for the students to continue their work of servicing the poor once they have returned from this life-changing journey.