Alternative Spring Break Sends Students to Nicaragua, Guin

Alternative Spring Break Sends Students to Nicaragua, Guin

Note: For information on the Guin project, contact Richard LeComte at 205-394-3040.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama’s Center for Service and Leadership is sending eight teams made up of more than 100 UA students and leaders on Beyond Bama: Alternative Breaks from Saturday, March 10, to Sunday, March 18.

Teams are going to Managua, Nicaragua; Los Fieros, Nicaragua; Esteli, Nicaragua; Greensboro; Guin; Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; and Orlando, Florida.

The teams traveling to Nicaragua will work with Panorama Service Expeditions: Nicaragua Compact. The UA center joined the Nicaraguan Compact in 2014 with 15 other universities. The three teams will focus on developing a community school as well as furthering economic development of an all women’s coffee collaborative and access to healthcare.

This initiative sends U.S. university and college students to help with the long-term development of Nicaragua through social-justice-based direct service projects.

Panorama Service Expeditions, a nonprofit organization focused on developing grassroots sustainable social and economic development projects; and Break Away, the national nonprofit for alternative breaks, are committed to long-term sustainability and service in Nicaraguan communities.

UA students work in Nicaragua during Alternative Spring Break in 2017.

The team traveling to Orlando will serve at Give Kids the World. They will help families have a magical moment as a family. Give Kids the World Village is an 84-acre nonprofit resort in Central Florida that provides weeklong, cost-free vacations to children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

World Village and its community partners provide children and their families accommodations in furnished villas, transportation, tickets to theme parks, meals and daily entertainment.

The team traveling to Guin will work with Habitat for Humanity Northwest Alabama. These students will serve alongside Teressa Clark and her local community. This trip is a part of the Southeastern Conference Compact that was created after the 2011 tornado by schools in the SEC.

“Beyond Bama: Alternative Breaks program is one of the most rewarding and transformational programs that the CSL has to offer students,” said Courtney Chapman Thomas, director of UA’s Center for Service and Leadership.

“Students who participate in these programs experience the lives and perspectives of their fellow man through service. They get to spend a week walking alongside their neighbor. Students walk away more compassionate and caring, and, most importantly, they walk away with the call to action to be a change agent.”

The community may learn more about the trip by following https://uacsl.wordpress.com/. Students will blog daily about their experiences. For more information about the center’s Beyond Bama: Alternative Break program, go to www.volunteer.ua.edu or phone Chapman Thomas at 205-348-2865 or 713-818-8712.

Contact

Richard LeComte, UA communications, rllecomte@ur.ua.edu, 205-394-3040

Source

Courtney Chapman Thomas, 205-348-2865 or 713-818-8712.