Las Manos @ Camino Seguro (Safe Passage)

Wedged into a barranco (ravine) in Guatemala City, there lies Central America's largest landfill, a natural pit consuming over forty acres and increasing annually.  Around the barranco exists a shanty town of about 30,000 squatters who make their living by rooting through the trash to gather recyclables and sell them for a low, but valued, reward.  The average family of five (not person, but family) living around the dump is estimated to earn about twenty-five quetzales ($3) a day.  While much of the housing is constructed from garbage, the landfill and its community are so prevalent in Guatemala's capital city that they merit their own government municipality. As if this situation weren't alarming enough, the dump is cited as a high-risk zone as it is prone to sweeping fires and massive landslides.  Tragically, a huge fire erupted from methane gases released by the pile and killed numerous people (numbers have never been verified).  After the incident, a wall was erected around the landfill and a law passed prohibiting kids under the age of thirteen from entering the dump.  The law, while necessary and correct, created a huge problem for family's depending on their ability to utilize the dump, as not only had they lost workers but also mothers now had the concern of needing to both work in the landfill and care for their children at home. Camino Seguro In 1997, Hanley Denning, a US educator and philanthropist, came to Guatemala to study Spanish and better equip herself to communicate with some of her US-based students.  Working in small towns around Antigua, one year turned into two, and just as she was set to depart in 1999, a close friend of hers asked her to visit the slums around the Guatemala City garbage dump.  Despite having worked with disadvantaged kids for several years, Hanley was so taken by the situation there that she sold her car and computer, dipped into her savings, and opened what has become know as Camino Seguro in Guatemala (Safe Passage). Camino Seguro started with forty of the most at-risk kids in Guatemala City, supplying them with care and attention, tutoring, and a healthy snack each.  Soon, the drop-in program produced an additional seventy students for Hanley to work with.  And, over the next eight years, the program grew and grew, first with a great new building for educational reinforcement and on to an adult literacy program and early childhood care center.  Now, Camino Seguro works annually with approximately 550 children, providing medical services, nutritional meals, and educational support. Hanley was tragically killed in an automobile accident in Guatemala on January 18, 2007.  While her passing left a void that can never be filled, it has come to represent the hope and concern she inspired in the people around her: With the support of her many dedicated admirers, Camino Seguro continues now stronger than ever and consistently makes a positive difference in the lives of thousands of contributors and clients each year. Bryant Hand, Las Manos de Christine's founder, began working with Camino Seguro in 2006, discussing a way to incorporate a great English program into the Camino Seguro system.  In 2007, the English program got underway and has since produced some really fantastic results.  The children are now competitive on their national exams, especially with regards to the English section, and the momentum of goodness there at Camino Seguro rolls on and on.  In 2010, Camino Seguro took over the day-to-day operation of the English curriculum, now firmly in place, and Mr. Hand himself now acts as an adviser and mentor to the incoming classes of English instructors.