School break trips to El Salvador

This time of year, a number of stories appear in the press about college students using their school breaks for projects in El Salvador.

For example, students from the University of Wisconsin in Engineers Without Borders spent their winter break in El Salvador on a waste water project:

New Year's Eve in Nejapa, El Salvador, looks a lot like the Fourth of July. At Griselda Guzman's house, homemade fireworks lighted the front yard, where the guests dancing outside her pale yellow home included 11 University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering students and three advisers.

Students from the UW-Madison chapter of Engineers Without Borders spent their winter break in El Salvador to begin construction on a gravity-based wastewater system that will link two nearby communities to the sewer system in the larger city of Nejapa.

That first night of celebration launched three weeks of local hospitality toward the students, who are members of the UW-Madison chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB). The group spent its winter break in El Salvador to begin construction on a mostly gravity-based wastewater system that will link two nearby communities to the sewer system in the larger city of Nejapa.(more)

Next week a Kansas State graduate student is leading a team from Habitat for Humanity to build 25 houses in Santa Ana. Undergraduate business majors from Santa Clara University are going to El Salvador in connection with making a micro-loan to an organic fruit and vegetable cooperative.

Sacred Heart University students are returning to the village of Tierra Blanca in Usulutan department where they have had a variety of service projects over the years. Meanwhile, Purdue students are going to El Salvador with the organization Ambassadors for Children.

For many of these college students, the experience they will have can lead to a lifetime where service to poor communities at home and abroad is important.