Going global in 2010, Part III: Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México

[Blog post & Facebook note from http://www.goglobalatsnu.blogspot.com/]

As stated on SNU's Morningstar Institute website: "The Morningstar Institute is an international development and poverty alleviation training institute, housed in Southern Nazarene University’s School of Business. Morningstar’s primary purpose is to bring the knowledge of international development and poverty alleviation to students and to provide them with the opportunity to be empowered through receiving academic training in the classroom, analytical training through research as well as practical training on the field during international internships." January 17-20 I was in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico, exploring possibilities for SNU students to do an internship there working with Healing Waters International through the Morningstar Institute.

Healing Waters International is a faith-based non-governmental organization that helps provide clean drinking water to poor communities. One of their project sites is located in the southern part of Mexico in the state of Chiapas. The project is headquartered in Tuxtla Gutiérrez and serves Tuxtla as well as surrounding communities. Healing Waters serves over 20 different communities in the area. It do this by locating water purification facilities in churches. The facilities are inspected and licensed by the state health department and produce purified water that the churches sell at below market prices to people in the community. After covering the costs of operation, a portion of the proceeds goes back to the Tuxtla Healing Waters office (called Aguas de Unidad in Spanish) and the church uses the rest for community outreach ministries, such as providing school supplies to poor families or supporting substance abuse ministries.

Dr. Tom Herskowitz from SNU visited the Tuxtla Gutiérrez project last year and came away with the idea of working with Healing Waters by having interns serve for a semester with the program. I went down to look at housing and study options for student interns. We still have a ways to go before anything is set up, but I hope that we can get something going before the end of the year. I think it will provide a great opportunity for SNU students to get first hand experience in addressing issues of poverty in very practical and sustainable ways.

Stay tuned to hear more as this opportunity develops.