Instead of attending graduation celebrations and all that goes along with the week following final exams, a group of 14 people traveled to Juarez, Mexico to participate in a service project sponsored by Global SERVE.

Just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Tx. in the state of Chihuahua, Juarez has been the subject of much news lately due to the suspected mass graves of drug cartel victims. The drug-trafficking scene in Juarez has given the city a reputation of corruption, violence, and has caused the United States much anxiety over the proximity of the border to this city.

Amidst all of this chaos is a place where the average citizen makes about three dollars a day, and lives a much different existence than neighbors in the Lonestar State. “I hope the service trip will give students, faculty, and staff a broader scope of why we are working to alleviate poverty; and we believe that service in this field promotes the awareness needed to address the issues of poverty,” said trip organizer John Andrew Patrick Quinn, prior to the trip.

From May 13 to 17, a group consisting of students, faculty and staff helped some of the people of Juarez meet the basic necessity of shelter. The service participants built a house for one family that was deemed to be in greatest need by the application-reviewing group Capus Por Christa, with whom Global SERVE worked. Recipients of the service were chosen from a large pool of applicants, making the decision a difficult one for the non-profit organization. The builders worked twelve hours shifts in ninety-five degree temperatures, lived in the absence of amenities and slept on a dusty church floor in the company of cockroaches, but their determination could not be contained. When the house was finished the receiving family showed its thanks by giving the volunteers a taste of their culture and some Mexican hospitality with a traditional Mexican meal.

According to some participants, the greatest part about the project was its humbling nature. Going from a wealthy nation to one like Mexico gave volunteers the chance to see first-hand just how much income disparity that a border can account for. Adrien Lopez, another participant, described the trip as being a very profound experience. “It was great to be involved in this project because of its international scope. Building a house for that family gave us something tangible to show for in our effort to reach out to our global family.”

Becky Long, an adviser to Global SERVE, and another participant in the Juarez project expressed further enthusiasm about the new experience with an international oriented project, and hopes that the trip will spur an interest in upcoming service trips.

The next alternative break will be in the fall when the Leadership Center sponsors a trip to Washington, D.C. where participants will be engaged in issues surrounding poverty and homelessness.

Global SERVE does a project every year, alternating between domestic and international venues where relief work is needed, or any other pressing matter calls for assistance, and can be applied to a service oriented learning experience. The next Global SERVE event is scheduled for May of 2002.

Funding for the Juarez trip was made possible through Global Volunteer’s bake sales, ACE concerts, the Chancellor’s fund, and SGA appropriations. The project organizers were able to raise $2,700 from all of these sources to finance materials, and other expenses. Students did have to pay for airfare, which came out to be two hundred and sixty dollars with special rates. But for five days in Mexico, and all of the experiences that came along with it those involved felt that this was a bargain not worth passing up.