The Mexico Summer Project 2009

  Mexico

• Puebla: 
Puebla

  United States

Philadelphia

Term: Summer 
Duration of Program: 3-6 months
Typical Duration of Program: 5-8 weeks
Dates: June 25 - August 8, 2009

Description: The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is seeking motivated volunteers for the 2009 Mexico Summer Project that will run from June 25 to August 8, 2009. The Mexico Summer Project will provide a safe place where youth from the Americas, Europe and Mexico can work together with the Totonaca and Nahua indigenous people on community projects, share from their diverse cultures and experiences, and learn ways to address the political, social, ecological, and economic challenges of the present and the future. The Mexico Summer Project is run in collaboration with Servicio, Desarollo, y Paz, A.C. (SEDEPAC), a prominent Mexican non-governmental organization. In 1939, AFSC and Quakers in Mexico launched the program, which now in its 70th year, continues to provide positive life-changing experiences for diverse youth and local communities.

The Program
In 2009 participants will live together in indigenous communities in the mountainous northeastern region of Puebla, Mexico, commonly called the Sierra Norte de Puebla. In developing and implementing the 2009 Mexico Summer Project, SEDEPAC and AFSC will work closely with Unidad Indigena Totonaca Nahuatl (UNITONA), an indigenous development organization in the area.

After four days of orientation, including a 2-day home stay with a local host family (community immersion), participants are divided into five groups. Each group of about 10 to 14 spends the next seven weeks living as a family in an indigenous village where they engage with the local community in cultural and recreational exchanges, assigned work projects for sustainable development, and workshops on various topics important to the local community and the group members.

Applications
Application forms are available. If you are interested, please send an email to request that the forms be mailed to you. All applications must be submitted to AFSC by March 20, 2009. In April, up to 34 participants and five facilitators from the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico will be notified that they have been accepted. Applicants from other countries should contact SEDEPAC.   Additional qualified applicants will be placed on a waiting list and contacted if space becomes available.

"To be able to be a volunteer in such a project is to live with different cultures and poor communities and know you can learn and teach with examples." MSP 2006 Participant

Qualifications: This is an intensive, challenging experience for mature individuals who are open-minded and eager to learn about the challenges of building sustainable communities in the midst of economic and ecological crisis. Participants must be 18-26 years old and able to communicate well in Spanish, the language of the project at all times. AFSC requires that participants undergo a pre-project physical exam. They must commit for the full seven weeks, June 25- August 8, 2009, and should be willing and prepared to live with a small group of peers in a remote, rural area of Mexico. AFSC seeks applicants who are interested in service, advocacy, and social justice--both in Latin America and their own communities.

Minimum Education: Associates

Cost in US$: $1,350.00

Experience Required: no

Age Range: 18 - 26 years old

This Program is open to American, Asian, Australian, Canadian, European and Worldwide Participants.

Participants Travel Independently or in Groups

Typically Participants Work in Groups

Scholarships are Available. Through the Dewitt Wallace Youth Travel Enrichment fund of the New York Community Trust we are able to provide scholarships to applicants who demonstrate financial need. Applicants should fill out a scholarship request form along with the application if they want to be considered for a scholarship.

Application Process Involves:

• In-Person Interview Required
• In-Person Interview when Feasible
• Online Application plus Application Assessment
• Physical Exam/Health Records
• Written Application

Post Services Include:

• Job and Internship Network

American Friends Service Committee's Mission Statement: The American Friends Service Committee is a practical expression of the faith of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Committed to the principles of nonviolence and justice, it seeks in its work and witness to draw on the transforming power of love, human and divine. We recognize that the leadings of the Spirit and the principles of truth found through Friends' experience and practice are not the exclusive possession of any group. Thus, the AFSC draws into its work people of many faiths and backgrounds who share the values that animate its life and who bring to it a rich variety of experiences and spiritual insights. This AFSC community works to transform conditions and relationships both in the world and in ourselves, which threaten to overwhelm what is precious in human beings. We nurture the faith that conflicts can be resolved nonviolently, that enmity can be transformed into friendship, strife into cooperation, poverty into well-being, and injustice into dignity and participation. We believe that ultimately goodness can prevail over evil, and oppression in all its many forms can give way.

Year Founded: 1917