Mission Trips
ECM Alternative Spring Break Mission Trip in March 2012
Joplin --
Leave the morning of Sunday, March 18 and get back the evening of Friday, March 23, 2012. Recovery work from the EF-5 tornado that hit in May 2011. Projects will include home repair, rebuilding, and new construction. Cost: $150-includes registration, transportation, food, housing and insurance. Sign up now!!! email ecm@ksu.edu or call 539-4281.
ECM Alternative Winter Break Mission Trip in January 2012
Ecuador --
The dates of the trip will be Jan. 4-15, give or take a day--depending on when we can get the best airfares and connections. There are two main projects: one involves the redesign and eventual replacement of a water system for the village of Yakunay, in the central highlands of Ecuador. Students working on this project will stay in the town of Cebadas. The other main project involves public health education. Students interested in this will live and work in nearby Riobamba. We'll have two travel days (one on either end of the trip), about 7-8 work days, and 2-3 days at the beach at the end of our stay. The base cost once we're in the country will be about $250, plus incidentals. The major cost will be for the airfare, currently about $900, round-trip. You would also need a passport, if you don't already possess one. We have several fundraising projects in the works: hosting 5 or more "potato bar lunches" in area churches, helping with the Career Fair, applying for funding from SGA and some academic departments. A non-refundable deposit equaling half of the airfare will be due by Monday, Sept. 26. We expect to buy our tickets by early October. Our hope is that we can raise enough money that the outlay for any individual student would be no more than $500--not bad for a 12-day trip to Ecuador! The EWB group had an info session last evening, attended by about 35 interested students. I will be meeting soon with a dozen or so interested persons connected to ECM. In the end, we hope to gather a group of between 10-20 persons to go on this first trip in January. Our hope is to establish a long-term relationship with the people and communities of central Ecuador, so that we can send groups there on a regular basis.
Living in the United States it is hard to see, but every day billions of people around the world suffer because of lack of access to safe and clean drinking water. Imagine that in the year 2011, more than 9,500 people die each day due to the illnesses and diseases contracted in the water that they consume. According to water.org, "Today's water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access." In Ecuador, the people of Yakunay village are affected by this water crisis. To aid Yakunay, student volunteers from the Ecumenical Campus Ministry (ECM) and Engineers Without Borders (EWB) at Kansas State University are collaborating with Jonathan Seward-a K-State alumnus now teaching in Ecuador, veteran of ECM-EWB mission trips and son of retired Presbyterian pastor, David Seward-and Peace Corps volunteers stationed in Ecuador to work in the village in January 2012.
Currently the area is in need of volunteers to repair and eventually replace Yanukay's only system delivering water from a stream. The completion of this project will require multiple phases beginning with the installation of over 700 meters of pipeline to deliver the water from the source to a storage tank. In addition to their water needs, ECM and EWB students will strive to improve health education by giving lectures and creating visual aids such as coloring books and signs in Spanish.
