I went on this trip to check out International Justice Mission -a human rights organization my parents support. This was a donor trip to show exactly, first hand, what IJM does to combat injustice. Specifically in Guatemala City they fight again child sexual assault (CSA).
I stayed up all night Saturday so I could leave at 4am for my 7am flight out of JFK. Of course I got the subway car with the completely obnoxious fat gay boy who thought he could sing and decided to regale everyone in the 'car for the next hour with his wailing. I thought some very murderous and bloody thoughts. Anyway, the flights went smoothly and I swiftly arrived in Guatemala City around 1.30pm.
Note - don't ever exchange currency at the airport if you can help it - you'll get an absolutely terrible exchange rate. However, that's what I had to do. Oh well. I met the group, and as I'd been up for about 30hrs, I opted to go to the hotel instead of site-see Antigua, as my friends and I were ending our trip there anyway. So Don Roberto drove me back to the hotel IJM booked for us - Vista Real. And holy mobats, what a hotel it is!!! Definitely the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed at. Just check out some of the pictures for an idea of how lushly beautiful it was.
During dessert we went around the table and told a bit about ourselves and what brought us to IJM. I definitely felt like the low man on the totem pole. I was keeping company with important lawyers, judges, pastors, big league CEOs, and David Carr - the drummer for Third Day. But throughout the whole trip everyone was so friendly and open and I made some lovely new friends.
Monday we went to the courthouse and had a meeting with two very important judges. Not all judges are keen on working with IJM to improve the judicial system, but these two are and were very welcoming to us and appreciated that Americans came all this way to meet them and show support.
After the Dump, we went to Potter's House facilities and had lunch. I was surprised that Guatemala has Pizza Hut AND Little Caesar's! We also met a family Potter's House and IJM had helped. We were then shown where the kids were having lunch, then taken to one of the little villages people who work at the Dump live in.
Along with providing medical relief, food and activities for the children, Potter's House also helps build better housing for the workers ("Treasures") of the Dump. They have already built several of these better houses in the neighborhood we were shown. They are far and away better than where Theresa's family had been living, and compared to the "houses" right next to it, but still...It was very eye opening to see such abject poverty and suffering be a way of life for these people. They have never known anything else. The kids run around in thread bare clothing, with no shoes, in dangerous conditions, and aspire to be a Dump truck driver - because that's all they know.
Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to post pictures of the children because of IJM privacy policies, but here are some pictures of the Dump and Potter's House.
Tuesday we went to the Ministerio Publico - the government building everyone goes to to lodge any sort of complaint. Anyone coming to report a case of Sexual Assault goes to a special part of the building for only those cases. I was shocked to learn that the people who work in the SA department work 32hr shifts! The reasoning behind this is that it's much better for the victims to have the same person walking them through all the various steps of the process, and it's more time efficient - and time is of the essence in these cases.
IJM doesn't try to take over existing government procedures or implement their own in place of the existing one - they are there to help the government improve their own procedures that are actually written down as law, but not properly enforced. A good example is at the Ministerio. For the CSA (child sexual assault) victims, the Ministerio has a set of 3 special rooms that are used to help the child give their testimony in a setting that's not an open courtroom. There's a play room and then a room where the child goes with the child psychiatrist who asks them questions and gets the story in the child's own words/language while they are filmed - the film is shown from the next room which also has a 2 way mirror. The whole point is for the judge, lawyers, and abuser to come and see this so the child doesn't have to go to court to testify and face their attacker face-to-face again. Remember, some of these kids are as young as 3 years old! Used properly, this could be a wonderful resource to use to help reduce further trauma to the child. However, at the moment there are many problems: lack of communication creates double bookings for the rooms, the equipment is not the best (cameras can't even zoom) and often don't work, and lack of court cooperation - some judges refuse to go to the Ministerio for the testimony, instead demanding the child to come to the large open courtroom, face their attacker again, and give their testimony that way. IJM is trying to help implement the necessary changes needed to make this resource as efficient as it should be.
It was so sad - seeing children with their own children. A girl in our group was 14 and had a 2yr old daughter. But then to see their faces light up and to see them dash around the exhibits and play with the toys - it was a startling and stark contrast to the position into which they were thrust.
We shared the dinner with the Guatemalan IJM staff as well - it was great getting to talk with them more. They are all such lovely people. And the entire organization is one of the most professional I have ever seen. These people are dedicated, caring workers who truly are changing the world for the better.
There was a line painted on a wall at The Potter's House (another organization IJM partners): "You are a Thought of God." No matter who we are, or where in life we are, or the job we work, we are a thought of God - we are ALL created in His image. Our self-worth should come from That, and knowing His love for us because of That. Nothing else.