Alternative Breaks Current Trips
Spend your break on a social justice,
student-run travel learning experience.
Application Deadline February 22, 2008. 12:00 PM in the Community Service Center (MGC 273)
To download summer trip participant application
click here.
Summer Trips
Venezuela, South America: Poverty Eradication Policies
Dates of Trip: June 4-15 2008
Student Trip Leaders: Lauren White and Brandon Sturdivant,
AltBreak.Venezuela@gmail.com
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Salvador Vidal-Ortiz
*Approximate Cost: $1800-$2100
Venezuela is a South American country with a diverse population of mestizo,
indigenous peoples and Afro-Venezuelans. The oil rich country has increasingly
focused on the welfare of its citizens, using its resources to promote quality
health, community involvement and literacy. The Alternative Summer Break trip
to Venezuela will focus on these Chavez-initiated innovations to the education,
employment and healthcare systems. Since these programs began, the government
claims that one million adults have become literate; thousands of medical
clinics have been established to combat poor health conditions, and many workers
experience communal ownership through cooperatives.
Participants in the 2008 summer alternative break trip to Venezuela will view these programs first hand, seeing citizens have access to water, electricity and living wages (things that they never had access to before). While examining progressive poverty policy in-person, participants will simultaneously critically assess poverty eradication policies in Venezuela and the US. The group will also meet with opposition political parties in Venezuela to garner multiple perspectives on the ground. Through this experience, the impact of governmental policy will become tangible and illuminate how policy affects peoples’ everyday lives. The group will stay in Caracas and coastal cities and will be guided by Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org).
Ecuador: Indigenous Rights & Environmental Resistance
Dates of Trip: May 27 – June 16, 2008
Student Trip Leaders: Joshua Faden (jf5349a@american.edu)
and Rebecca Aman (ra5520a@american.edu)
Faculty/Staff Advisor: TBA
*Approximate Cost: $1900-2100
This social justice trip will focus on indigenous rights. We will explore the constant challenges that indigenous communities face in maintaining their identity and their culture in the modern world. The trip also examines the struggles and issues that indigenous communities encounter. Additionally, participants will learn about the strategies for resistance, as well as the future goals and initiatives of the local communities.
We will divide the mission of our trip into two main focus areas. The first aspect will be teaching and learning about the different parties involved in the indigenous communities (i.e. large corporations, government officials, local organizations and NGOs) through meetings with key players in Quito.
The second focal point of the trip will be experiencing and working with
indigenous communities. We will be traveling from the heights of the Andes
Mountains to work with the San Isidro community, to the heart of the Amazon
rainforest to work with the Kichwa Sarayacu community. A possible visit to
the coastal mangrove ecosystem may be included as well. The indigenous communities
have struggled for land rights, environmental justice and cultural rights
for many years. By working along side native communities we will stand in
solidarity with their struggle as we learn about the US role in the global
environment such as resource extraction, climate change and loss of biodiversity.
Pine Ridge Reservation: US Government Marginalization
of Native Americans in Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Dates of Trip: May 10-16, 2008
Student Trip Leaders: Laura Martich (lm7335a@american.edu)
and Katie Mayer (km6843a@american.edu)
Staff Advisor: TBA
*Approximate Cost: $800-$900
This trip will focus on understanding the true history of US-Native relations and public policy. We will learn about the various policy attempts by the US government to address American Indians, from assimilation policy to land distribution policy. The trip will also address tribal difficulties such as poverty, alcoholism, diabetes, domestic abuse, and poor economic development. We will be working with Re-Member (www.re-member.org), a Native American outreach program that emphasizes relationship building and community engagement between volunteers and the Lakota people.
Students who participate in this trip will experience all aspects of Lakota
culture, including religion, art, tribal government, traditional medicine,
and other issues on the Pine Ridge Reservation. We will meet tribal leaders
and Lakota people with a variety of perspectives of reservation life. Also,
we will tour the reservation and important historical sites, including Wounded
Knee and Red Cloud’s grave. The group will stay at Re-Member’s
facilities, build a teepee together and work on several service projects with
the community.
Spring Trips (Full)
1. Tohono
O'odham Reservation: Poverty & Economic Development - Sonoran Desert,
Arizona
Dates of Trip: March 8-15, 2008
Student Trip Leaders: Carrie
Johnson and Amy Gastinger
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Vi Ettle
*Approximate Cost: $650-$750
In pursuit of a sustainable community, we will look at the creation of effective culturally based responses to the problems that confront the Tohono O'odham Reservation. Our alternative break group will study the poverty on the Tohono O'odham Reservation through analyzing the history of U.S. Indian policy, reservation education, unemployment rates, health issues, particularly diabetes, etc.
Through group dialogue, pre-departure lectures, and educational and experiential opportunities on the reservation, we will better understand how to cultivate Native American reservation sustainability. For sustainability to be achieved, it must be reflective of the people's culture. We will participate with organizations on the reservation that are working to stimulate economic development, expand educational opportunities, and protect and promote native traditions.
2. Brazil:
Exploring Racial Democracy in Salvador, Bahia
Dates of Trip: March 8-15, 2008
Student Trip Leader: June
Williams
Faculty/Staff Advisor: Clarence Lusane
*Approximate Cost: $2100
The social justice theme this trip will focus on will be the status of the
Black Movement in Salvador, Brazil. Northeast Brazil holds the greatest concentration
of Afro-Brazilians and this region is very important to examine the state
of the Black Movement in Brazil as it stands.
The purpose of the trip will be to investigate and question the quality of
life of Afro-Brazilians on a macro and micro level. A human rights concern
is the Black Movement. Afro-Brazilians are in a struggle not just to be afforded
social and economic rights as given to others considered white or mixed, but
Afro-Brazilians struggle to have the government and society acknowledge that
racism exists and presents a problem to society in Brazil.
Students who participate on this trip will experience how Afro-Brazilians
fit into the Brazilian society and also learn how Afro-Brazilians are taking
more responsibility for their value and contributions within society. Students
will meet with community leaders and organization officials who work to counteract
the discrimination and devaluing of Afro-Brazilians in society.
3. District
of Columbia: Homelessness/Urban Poverty
Dates of Trip: March 10-16, 2008
Student Trip Leaders: Rae
Borsetti and Nicole Davis
Faculty/Staff Advisor: TBA
*Approximate Cost: $200-275
This trip will work with a wide range of community-based and national organizations
in Washington, DC in order to better understand the root causes and implications
of homelessness, urban poverty, and gentrification in our own city. In addition
to these themes, we will also explore what it means to build solidarity with
homeless communities and those affected by issues of poverty instead of an
only service-based model.
In order to better understand the homeless experience in DC, this trip will
be doing an Urban Plunge, guided by the National Coalition for the Homeless.
The urban plunge will entail living on the streets for two days and two nights
in order to gain a better sense of the daily reality of many members of our
community, learn about the forces that create this inequality, and see how
we can join together to struggle against inequalities. As part of our service
projects, we will build housing with Habitat for Humanity and serve dinner
at a local women's homeless shelter. We will also be meeting with homeless-run
organizations such as Until We're Home, that organize for their own rights,
in addition to NGO's working on job training, service providing, and challenging
gentrification.
4. Mexico
City: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Ally Social Justice Movements
Dates of Trip: March 8-16, 2008
Student Trip Leader: Emily
Willard
Factuly/Staff Advisor: Nick
Sakurai and Sara Bendoraitis
Approximate Cost: $1160-1360
This trip will focus on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Movement in Mexico. Mexico is traditionally a conservative, Catholic country. Since the emergence of LGBT movements in the 1970's, there have been many struggles and recent progress. Recent laws have been enacted, including a national anti-discrimination law and a law for domestic partnership in Mexico City. Also, there is current national legislation under consideration on transgender rights. We will be working to expand connections and build transnational relationships between the LGBT movements in Mexico and the U.S. We also believe that this solidarity can help to create a more global LGBT human rights movement. During our trip, we will work towards a greater mutual understanding and to identify the ways in which we can create and continue solidarity after our trip.
In Mexico City, participants will meet with LGBT community leaders, human rights activist, Mexican legislators, LGBT performers, Mexican sexologists. Students will also visit the BGay-BProud Café, Teotihuacan ancient ruins, LGBT youth community center, and the Frida Khalo house and museum.
5. New
Orleans Government: Racial and Socio-Economic Disparities
Trip Dates: March 8-16, 2008
Student Trip Leaders: Janel
Knight and Hannah Hanson
Faculty/Staff advisor: TBA
Approximate Cost: $480-500
Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating and costly hurricanes to hit the United States. Rebuilding of the Gulf Coast is still occurring years later. This trip will focus on the racial and socio-economic tensions caused by inadequate government planning and response. Participants will immerse themselves in New Orleans to gain a better understanding of the culture and work with the St. Bernard Project to help the rebuilding process.
6. Prison Justice Trip to
San Francisco
Trip Dates: March 8-16, 2008
Student Trip Leaders: Ava
Page and James Worsdale
Faculty/Staff Advisor: TBA
Approximate Cost: $ 750- 800
The Prison Justice Trip to San Francisco will examine the complex intersections that characterize the retributive nature of the American justice system. In a country that incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world, it is necessary to examine the cause and effect relationship that the expansion of the prison system exacts on individuals and communities.
While in the Bay Area, we will work with grassroots abolitionist organizations, government employees, and formerly incarcerated people to understand, and work towards changing, the problematic effects of retributive justice. Possible organizations that we will work with include: San Quentin prison, Critical Resistance, the Sheriff's office and the San Francisco Jail, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, the office of the prosecutor, the office of the public defender, Delancy Street, Books Not Bars, Copwatch, and the Prison Activist Resource Center.
*scholarship and fundraising opportunities available