“Peru has not only changed me as a person, but it will change the rest of the decisions I make in my lifetime…This experience has made me aware…that I need to dedicate my life to others.”(Ali Brundrett)

“Continuing to find ways to empower, serve and befriend others is vital for my own growth.” (Sonja Eberly)

“Seeing such immense poverty has really opened my eyes to the reality of life away from America… I feel changed from this project, and I like that change.” (Emily Reuter)

San Juan del Alto, Peru is a small, relatively young farming community of just over 3,000 residents, located in a remote part of the largely desert province of Arequipa. Its residents live simple lives, most without running water, sewage systems or electricity. Many struggle to feed their families while working land that belongs to others. In July of 2008, however, the simple community of San Juan was host to a remarkable event that brought young men and women from three continents together in a project to improve the village while learning about the challenges faced by its residents.

The humidity in the air was stifling, as the bricks were passed from hand to hand, down the line of volunteers to their destination – the brand new wall of the Jaigeer Peace Center, a multi-purpose building attached to the Jaigeer School in the Manikganj District of Bangladesh. The hands that the bricks passed through belonged to a startling array of people – American, Japanese, Nepalese and, of course, Bangladeshi. Some of the hands were tough and weathered from years of hard work. Some were gloved to protect hands unaccustomed to handling the coarse bricks. Others were the small hands of children. Sweat dripped from each of them, as Bangladesh’s summer weather lived up to its brutal reputation and tested the volunteers with its heat and humidity. But the hands did not falter, as they worked in unison to move a mountain of bricks and piece by piece, create a structure dedicated to peace and empowerment, where days before had been only an empty lot.

These hands belonged to the participants and volunteers of the 2007 Discover True Friendship Service Tour, held in the village of Jaigeer, located 30 km outside Bangladesh’s capital city of Dhaka. This year’s Service Tour brought participants from all over the United States together with volunteers from Bangladesh, Nepal and Japan in a service learning project that was centered on the Jaigeer School, which serves local students in grades one through five. The mission was to build an addition to the school, in order to allow the school to serve a greater number of students. The building would also, however, be used for adult education classes, business training for microfinance program participants, character education workshops, community meetings, and as a health care clinic. It would serve the community in a myriad of ways, and be a symbol of friendship and cooperation between the people of Jaigeer and their brothers and sisters from across the globe.

This past summer, I was fortunate enough to be able to lead a service project with the International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF) in the southern African country of Zambia. The project, titled the “Discover True Friends Tour”, took place in the Mackenzie Community of the city of Ndola. From July 24 to August 8, while most students were enjoying their freedom from school, my group of nine high school and college participants were giving selflessly of themselves in a multitude of ways as they embraced the people and the culture of Zambia.

From the beginning, our project had multiple purposes, but it quickly expanded even further as we spent time in Mackenzie. The first mission was to construct an extension to a school that IRFF had built in the Mackenzie community several years ago. This school is the only one in the community and does not charge its students tuition, unlike the public schools of Zambia. It is staffed by three teachers who volunteer their services to the community, receiving no salary. These dedicated teachers serve almost 350 students in grades 1 through 4, many of whom are orphans whose parents have died of AIDS (Zambia, a nation of just over 11 million people, has approximately 600,000 orphans whose parents have died of AIDS- a staggering number).

Twenty three teenaged participants traveled to Paraguay this past summer to participate in an annual volunteer project sponsored by the International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF) and the Leda Project in Paraguay.

During the two weeks there, the group traveled by bus from Asuncion city to a Mennonite community in Loma Plata, then by boat and charter plane to the Leda community developed and sustained by Unificationists under the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and from there, they traveled by boat to the Chamacoco community in Paraguay where the group spent four days living and learning patience, perseverance and strong will and determination from the Native South Americans living in this village.

This larger than usual group of volunteers were given a rare and valuable peek into the sustained development of the unexpectedly popular Mennonite community developed in Loma Plata. Mr. Ratslaff gave the group a great overview of the Mennonite history and illustrated the struggle and rewards of such a great feat. From Loma Plata the group traveled by boat, bus and charter plane to the Leda community where they spent a day soaking in the sun and the beauty of this four year old community before departing for the Chamacoco Village.