Central American Ministries Inaugurates new CAM Nursery – San Ignacio de Loyola Central American Ministries inaugurated a new nursery in San Pedro Sula, Honduras on July 25, 2008. The new CAM nursery will serve one-hundred children ages one-and-a-half to five-years of age living next to the local garbage dump. The Mayor of San Pedro Sula, Rodolfo Padilla, the governor of the Department of Cortes, Honduras, Sandra Cuevas, and CAM’s International Program Director, Andrew Pawuk were present at the ceremony.
Aug 11, 2008 University of Detroit Jesuit High School honored at innauguration ceremony at the new CAM nursery Sixteen students and three faculty members from University of Detroit Jesuit participated on a two-week mission trip to Honduras from July 13 – 26, 2008. On Friday, July 25, 2008 the students from Univeristy of Detroit Jesuit High School were honored by Central American Ministries and the Municipality of San Pedro Sula, Honduras during the inauguration of the new CAM nursery serving one-hundred children ages one and a half to five years of age. The CAM - San Ignacio de Loyola Nursery will serve children and families living next to the local garbage dump. The volunteers assisted with the final projects of the construction of the nursery and built two homes for families whose houses were destroyed by fires. The students also traveled to El Salvador visiting the Monseñor Romero Center at the University of Central America in San Salvador, the Divina Providencia chapel, and residence of former Archbishop Oscar Romero. Aug 11, 2008 Successful Annual St. John’s Jesuit High School Volunteer Trip 16 students and 3 faculty members from St. John's Jesuit High School participated on Central American Ministries mission trip to Guatemala and El Salvador from June 15 – 28, 2008. The students volunteered at the Santa Clara Nursery and the Francisco Coll School teaching English, repairing desks, and painting. The trip was highlighted with a visit to the Monseñor Romero Center at the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador where participants listened to Fr. Dean Brackley, S.J., a Jesuit who replaced one of the five Jesuits martyred by the Salvadoran Army in 1989. The students also had the opportunity to learn about the legacy of the Central American martyrs, Catholic Social Teaching, and the history of liberation theology in Central America. Aug 11, 2008 University of Detroit Jesuit High School honored at innauguration ceremony at the new CAM nursery
Sixteen students and three faculty members from University of Detroit Jesuit participated on a two-week mission trip to Honduras from July 13 – 26, 2008. On Friday, July 25, 2008 the students from Univeristy of Detroit Jesuit High School were honored by Central American Ministries and the Municipality of San Pedro Sula, Honduras during the innauguration of the new CAM nursery serving one-hundred children ages one and a half to five years of age. The CAM - San Ignacio de Loyola Nursery will serve children and families living next to the local garbage dump. The volunteers assisted with the final projects of the construction of the nursery and built two homes for families whose houses were destroyed by fires. The students also traveled to El Salvador visiting the Monseñor Romero Center at the University of Central America in San Salvador, the Divina Providencia chapel, and residence of former Archbishop Oscar Romero.
Aug 01, 2008 Mind that child: Spare a thought for young scavengers Source: http://dailynews.habarileo.co.tz/columnist/index.php?id=5682
SCAVENGING is a worldwide problem. However, the problem is more prevalent in large cities in developing countries such as, Mexico, Thailand, the Philippines and Tanzania. I have seen children scavenging in all major towns and cities in Tanzania.
But I have also seen young scavengers in Europe, America and Russia. Invariably, child scavengers live in conditions of extreme poverty and deprivation. Early this week I talked to children scavenging in dumpsites in the city of Dar es Salaam.
Some of the children were in the company of a parent or, in few cases, both parents. I was amazed. Indeed, I found it a sorry spectacle. Families living in grinding poverty think they have no dignity to defend. So, to them, scavenging is a small, acceptable matter.
In most cases it is the same street children that we see eating from garbage cans that visit dumpsites. Young beggars and other socially disadvantaged children also scavenge. The habit is so compelling that the dumps are sometimes swarming with scavengers.
The most notorious scavengers are found in the city of Dar es Salaam where dumpsites are almost always overflowing with refuse shunted in from various sources including the port, hospitals, factories, garages and homes.
Scavenging children make their living by picking up and selling used paper, plastic, bottles, metal pieces, tins, rags, clothes and other objects from street garbage or dumpsites. Adult scavengers do exactly the same thing.
In Dar es Salaam scavengers find garbage shunted in from the port the most attractive. They say truckloads of garbage invariably come with brand new items such as pens, toys, tiny dud radio sets and cheap watches, inadvertently discarded in garbage bins.
However, I must mention at the outset, that scavenging is not only demeaning but also a health hazard. It is a risky undertaking. Perhaps the most dangerous garbage in most dumpsites comes from hospitals, health centers, pharmacies and dispensaries.
Normally hospital refuse must be incinerated under close supervision. But somehow, some of the waste finds its way into communal dumpsites. This is a bad practice that poses serious health risks to a large section of the population, especially the scavengers.
The items commonly found in hospital refuse include bottles, used syringes, various types of needles and blades, cotton swabs or absorbent pads used in surgery, empty medicine containers and used bandages. Most of these items are health hazards.
Highly dangerous waste also comes from factories in the form of garbage laced with toxic chemicals, acids and poisons. Industrial effluents often flow into dumpsites. Barefoot scavengers or those wearing sandals risk treading on corrosive matter.
Garbage coming from homes, which is more attractive to scavengers, shunts in leftovers of food. But it may also contain repulsive matter such as animal dung or human faeces. It is remiss not to mention here that not all scavenging children come from poor families.
Children hailing from affluent families use dumpsites as playgrounds. They often visit dumps to sort through piles of waste looking for toys, and eating leftovers is highly likely. Once in the dumpsites wealthy children and the poor incur the same health risks.
Medical doctors say scavenging children can easily contract HIV/AIDS from accidental needle pricks or incisions from discarded surgical blades. And these are not the only health risks posed by dumpsites where flies abound and snakes lurk.
In fact, scavengers carry out their tasks in a highly unhealthy and dangerous environment where they are exposed to infectious diseases, including hepatitis A and B, tetanus, coliform and even HIV/AIDS.
Scavengers are also at risk of laceration from glass and sharp metal plates. When the dumps are burning the scavengers are exposed to toxic fumes and volatile compounds from hot plastic or other smouldering materials.
The risk of respiratory impairments or residual long-term asthma is high. While scrambling for items at the time of dumping young scavengers run the risk of being run over by large machines such as bulldozers or dump trucks.
They are also likely to be buried and suffocated by moving mounds of garbage. Thermal stress and burns are other health risks. Since disadvantaged children are almost always hungry, they eat discarded leftovers of food quite readily risking typhoid infection.
Food poisoning and other digestive disorders from eating rancid leftovers are also frequent. Unfortunately it is these poor children who often lack access to health care services. These minors, many of whom are homeless, cannot afford medication.
In an International Labour Organisation study on young scavengers in the Philippines recently a range of health complications were diagnosed in the children. The complications included high levels of lead and mercury in their blood.
Many suffered from impaired lung functions; tetanus, a presence of parasites and a range of skin disorders. The bodies of the young scavengers also bore weals from occasional battering and even gunshots. They were also despicably dirty.
Scavenging children have enemies you might never imagine. Stray dogs and housecats often compete for leftovers of food in garbage cans with destitute children. Since dogs and cats have a more acute sense of smell they tend to discover and get at leftovers faster.
So, children often pelt them with stones in a fight over leftovers in the dank alleys and garbage dumps – a grim case of survival for the fittest. It is a repulsive scenario. I hope poverty alleviation initiatives will eventually rescue scavenging children from starvation.
Scavenging is morally reprehensible and is normally shunned by society. Families that live close to dumpsites have a sticky problem keeping their children away from the filth. It is the municipal or city authorities that should strive most to solve the problem.
If all garbage was incinerated thoroughly at the time of dumping no one would have gone there to rummage through the ash. Factories and hospitals should have special incinerators or waste treatment plants to deal with dangerous effluents and refuse.
Taking hazardous waste to dumps spells health risks. Parents and communal settings should keep a protective eye on children making sure they do not visit dumps. Children aged eight years to 14 are the most difficult to control. I wish everyone good parenting. Jul 04, 2008 Fighting to survive on mountain of trash Source: Thestar.com Toronto, Canada Parts from an article published on June 30 by the star.com
MANILA–Amid the sprawl and stench of this city's main dump – its air thick with charcoal and fleas – Redentor Escarcha is beaming.
The sinewy 26-year-old, his skin glistening with sweat, is one of thousands who come here every day to mine the Philippines' capital's garbage for recyclables: cans, cardboard, copper cables, anything of value.
It's only 11 a.m. but Escarcha knows that what he has collected in his sack so far is worth more than 200 pesos (about $4.50). Most days this father of four earns about $3.
He knows the precise value of everything here – and he should. Escarcha is a veteran who has worked this dump for 19 years, ever since he was 7 years old.
He was born here.
"I was just lucky," he says, explaining how he hit upon a treasure trove of high-quality glass this particular morning.
Lucky?
Yes. In Escarcha's value system, today is another day he'll be able to feed his family.
Here in "Smokey Mountain," as this dump is known, poverty runs about as deep as it can get.
An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people live on the margins of the landfill.
And every day legions of its inhabitants swarm into its steaming refuse, wooden-handled picks in hand, to silently root out nuggets of value.
"These are the poorest of the poor," says Jane Walker, who heads a non-governmental organization working in the community.
(Continues with Christina, Escarcha’s wife)
“…As she speaks, she gently tugs on a string, rocking her 1-year-old son Danny to sleep in a fishnet hammock suspended from the ceiling of their "home" – a back room measuring three metres by two metres. It's tucked away inside a tiny scrap board house they share with two other families.
In all, 15 people live here in a structure resembling a chicken coop. There are about 1,500 such homes in the neighborhood. All lack running water, toilets and even glass windows.”…
(….)
OUT ON THE MOUNTAIN, many of the children of the population explosion can be seen every day rummaging through the refuse with their parents, desperately trying to earn enough to feed themselves.
Wearing plastic boots, and carrying sacks as big or bigger than they are, they seem – justifiably – bitter boys, growing old in childhood.
(…)
Plastics range between 11 and 16 cents per kilogram depending on quality; metals range from 11 to 20 cents per kilogram; clean, durable cardboard can net as much as 16 cents per kilogram; and good quality aluminum cans can fetch 80 cents per kilogram.
Among the most valuable commodities are copper cables. They can bring in 92 cents per kilogram.
Here and there across the Mountain, the scavengers set fire to tires in order to extract their steel cords, setting loose a haze of toxic fumes.
(..)
"If we eat every day," Christina says, "I'm happy."
Jun 30, 2008 Landslide at Guatemalan dump Copy and paste the following link in your browser for more information on the avalanche in Guatemala from the BBC news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7467282.stm Jun 23, 2008 Landslide kills eight in Guatemala rubbish dump
Guatemala City, June 21 (IANS) At least eight people, including two children, were killed in a mudslide at a garbage dump here, Spain’s EFE news agency reported. Authorities said that between 50 and 100 “guajeros” (scavengers) who sift through the garbage in search of sellable items might have been at the bottom of a ravine inside the dump at the time of the mudslide Friday.
There are entire families who subsist on the roughly 100 quetzales ($13.38) a day they can earn extracting recyclables from the dump.
The spokeswoman for the Guatemala City government, Maria Jose Salas, said the tragedy took place in an area of the dump that is off-limits to scavengers precisely because of the risk of landslides.
But the president of the Recyclers Association, Gustavo Martinez, said municipal authorities have never been able to keep people out of the high-risk zone, while some of the survivors said that the group buried in the mudslide were known as “the miners” because they dug deeper into the mound of trash than the rest of the scavengers.
Located south of the capital, the dump covers some 284,000 sq metres and receives the refuse from an area with nearly 617,000 inhabitants.
Jun 21, 2008 Garbage dump landslide kills 4 in Guatemala
GUATEMALA CITY, June 20 (Reuters) - A landslide at a garbage dump in the Guatemalan capital on Friday killed at least four people and injured six others who made their living by scavenging for food and recyclable goods, firefighters said.
"So far, we've pulled out four corpses but the people who work here say there are more people under the tonnes of garbage," said city fire department spokesman Mynor Rodas.
Hundreds of families make their living at the dump in Guatemala City, searching the garbage for food, recyclable metal and other discarded items they can sell.
Guatemala is in the midst of its annual rainy season, when dangerous landslides are common.
In 2005, a massive fire engulfed the dump after a cloud of methane gas exploded. After the fire, the city built a wall around the dump and prohibited children from working there. (Reporting by Herbert Hernandez; Editing by Bill Trott) Jun 20, 2008 Why do we do what we do?
16 students and 3 faculty members from St. John's Jesuit High School participated on Central American Ministries mission trip to Guatemala and El Salvador from June 15 – 28, 2008. The students volunteered at the Santa Clara Nursery and the Francisco Coll School teaching English, repairing desks, and painting. The trip was highlighted with a visit to the Monseñor Romero Center at the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador where participants listened to Fr. Dean Brackley, S.J., a Jesuit who replaced one of the five Jesuits martyred by the Salvadoran Army in 1989. The students also had the opportunity to learn about the legacy of the Central American martyrs, Catholic Social Teaching, and the history of liberation theology in Central America.
