Hello! My name is Malinda, and I am a Solidarity Worker in Honduras. What is a Solidarity Worker, you may ask? Well, it's an opportunity created by the New Community Project (NCP), a non-profit organization on a mission to "turn the world upside down" by "promoting peace through justice, care for creation, and experiential learning". Although I am sure that I will be writing more about NCP in future posts, I highly recommend visiting their website to get an overview about NCP's work on university campuses, the Amazon rainforest, girl's education in Nepal & South Sudan, and more!
Solidarity Workers commit to serving for an extended period of time (in my case, six months) with a partner organization. NCP has placed Solidarity Workers in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Nepal, South Sudan....and now, Honduras! My experience is slightly different, however, because rather than being placed with an already established partner of NCP, I will be working in Honduras with a new contact called CASM (Comision de Accion Social Menonita, or Mennonite Social Action Committee). This relationship was made possible through NCP director David Radcliff's connection to Don Tatlock of Church World Services (an organization most popularly known for its "Crop Walks", but has a wide variety of projects both locally and abroad) who has worked closely with CASM in the past. Hopefully CASM and NCP may be able to start working together in a future partnership as well!
CASM is an ecumenical, community development organization in Honduras, whose mission is to "accompany families and social organizations committed to transforming the country to a more just society." As of now, "community development" is a broad (even abstract!) term for me, and I know that many people dispute the way in which community development work is best realized. I am sure that it will be a subject I will reflect on further in this blog as I develop more experience, but for now I am simply very excited to see how CASM works, to learn about its methods and strategies, and to live and work enthusiastically with its staff and communities.
So, to sum up....as a Solidarity Worker, I am thankful to have the privilege of working with all three of these great organizations! (Just click below each to view their respective webpages!)
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| www.newcommunityproject.org |
Thank you for joining me on this adventure! Overall, my hope is that this blog will give you a glimpse into what life is like in another part of the world, and inspire you to also [verb]+Solidarity with our global neighbors in whatever way that you can!
Peace,
Malinda
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