Volume CXXXIII, Number 11 November 30, 2001 f

Profile: Bowdoin alumna Hanley Denning fights poverty
ERIC DIAMON
STAFF WRITER

Editor's note: This article was originally published in the Times Record on September 24, 2001.

Noxious smells, a high danger of disease, and rampant drug abuse and crime await Hanley Denning each morning at her office in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

She is founder and director of Safe Passage, a support program trying to help the poorest and most at-risk of Guatemala's children break out of poverty through education. The program is on the outskirts of the garbage dump here in a small white church on loan from a local parish. Prior to opening in December 1999, several weeks were spent cleaning and painting the church as it was infested with cockroaches, flies and mold.

Instead of allowing the setting to frustrate her, it challenges and motivates Denning.

"Some of these kids," she said, "it's unbelievable, the things that they do. They get up, living in a cardboard home - no water, no lights but they do get up every morning." According to Denning, children also lack emotional support at home due to the high rate of parental drug addiction.

To counter this, the center provides some stability that many of these children do not experience at home. "The tiny church has become our project's base," said Denning, "and serves as a refuge for the many children who come to us each day in search of food, caring and attention."

In 1997 she arrived in Guatemala to work at the program, God's Child in Antigua, but she knew almost no Spanish. She had a degree from Bowdoin College. She had sold all of her possessions, including her car, computer and furniture. She had the experiences of working as a teacher at the Foundation for Children with AIDS in Roxbury, Mass., and at a Head Start program in North Carolina.
"It was very difficult," she said. "The first day I got off the plane, there was someone waiting for me with the name of the program, 'God's Child', on a sign. I was only able to say 'Hola.' I felt so childish and had so much to ask."
After studying Spanish for several months in an intensive immersion program, Denning began her work with God's Child.

"I had a caseload of 90 kids," she said of her work teaching children in Antigua. "Over the course of a year, I got more and more involved with the kids and they just really captured my heart. I got very involved with the families and I ended up staying for three years."

This work helped lay the foundation for Safe Passage, the project she began in December 1999, after having been invited to Guatemala City to tour the garbage dump, a location where many families live. During the day and evening, family members search the dump for food and other essentials.

"I was gonna head back to the states, but a nun and friend invited me to come to the Guatemala City Garbage Dump. I was nervous and hesitant walking through the dump, but in talking with children I was amazed how many children weren't in school," Denning said.

She had mixed feelings as to what she could do to help.

"I thought that I could set up something part-time helping 15 children," she continued, "but that idea lasted one week and 60 children came. I realized that this had to be full-time, all or nothing."

So with a $5,000 grant in hand, Denning and volunteers created a drop?in reinforcement program for children not attending school.

Just over a year-and?a-half old, the project still gobbles up her time. "The program is challenging and all consuming," she said, "especially because I love what I'm doing. I have long, long hours."

A typical day involves getting up at 5:30 a.m. and making a to-do list. By 6:15 a.m. Denning's on the bus from Antigua to Guatemala City. Arriving to the project's center around 8 a.m., she meets with the assistant director and then from 8:30?9:30 a.m. there's a staff meeting with the 12 staff members and six volunteers.

The rest of the day is spent doing outreach work, talking with program sponsors and supervising. Denning then leaves the city by 7 p.m. and returns home around 8:30 p.m. She does office work until about 11:30 p.m. before heading to bed.

As the project progresses, Denning is learning to delegate more and to make the project more locally run.

"More and more, I'm setting it up so that local leadership is in place," she said. "I'm training a Guatemalan to be the assistant director."

Even though the project is still early in its existence, Denning and the other workers and volunteers have witnessed great successes.

"There are so many obstacles, but none of our students have dropped out of school," she said. "One student that comes to mind was getting 30s and 40s on tests last year, but is now getting 90s."

She added that a student cannot flunk out of the program. "We take into consideration the student's background," she said.

Growing up in Yarmouth and attending Bowdoin College, Denning knew she wanted to go overseas and experience other cultures. But nothing in Maine prepared her for the work she is doing, she said.

"I've lived and worked among the poor in Guatemala for the past four years, but nothing prepared me for the horrors I saw in the Guatemala City garbage dump," she said.

While she didn't have too much real-life preparation for what she was about see in Guatemala City, she had always wanted to help those in trouble.

"I worked for Shoreline (Community Mental Health) in Brunswick doing outreach with homeless people," she said, adding that her commitment to help others is a Denning family value. "And working in Roxbury was a huge turning point."

Denning's ability to adapt to different situations has helped her greatly to continue to build the program. From the 15 students she had originally envisioned back in 1999, Safe Passage now helps more than 230 children. But not just every student who applies is accepted. "We try to take in the most at?risk children," she said.

Once in the program, children are offered everything from tutoring assistance to financial assistance with purchasing the required - and expensive - school uniforms.

Support for the children occurs year-round and at the start of each school year, in addition to uniform costs, children also receive enrollment fees, shoes and school supplies. Funding of this project is a constant challenge said Denning.

"We try to have sponsors link with individual children and try to keep the sponsor informed about the project," she said, noting that they have roughly 130 sponsors who contribute a monthly donation to the project. Safe Passage recommends $25 each month, but the program eagerly accepts school supplies.

"We teach the students that the assistance is earned and that school is their job. They can earn supplies and food for their family. It's sort of an economic incentive," Donning said, adding that for parents, it's a sacrifice to send children to school because children either take care of younger siblings or help work in the dump.

Denning shared one story of a girl she encountered while doing outreach in the dump. The story is typical of many children here, she said. "(The 9-year-old girl) was in charge of raising her little sister, staying with her all day, because single mothers work very hard out in the dump," she said. "They have no one to take care of their children so the child becomes the caretaker for his or her younger siblings. It's a sacrifice."

Denning's goal is for children to go "at least through high school. Having graduated from high school, they can go on to be a secretary, teacher, social worker. Their parents' lives are so much defined by a day?to?day struggle far survival and I want these kids to be able to see beyond that."

Participation in the program requires strict adherence to the rules. Students must go to school unless excused for a legitimate reason. School lasts half the day, with some students going in the morning and others in the afternoon.
When students are not in school, they go to the project. There, children are helped with homework, offered art instruction and provided with outdoor activities. "Volunteers are trying to help students move away from copying like machines and move toward understanding educational concepts," said Donning.

The program also provides lunch to both the morning group and afternoon group. "We serve 230 lunches a day," she continued, "which is usually the only real meal many kids receive."

The program also offers weekend activities such as athletics to help keep children out of trouble.

Project work is hard but necessary, in Denning's eyes. On top of it all, she tries to take care of herself. "I'm trying to connect with others around me and also some not associated with the program," she said. "I also like to run and go to the beach."

Beyond exhaustion, Safe Passage volunteers face another problem: both the project's buildings are on loan. That means no long-term security.

Dealing with all that and more is not exactly what she anticipated upon coming to Guatemala in 1997. But for Denning, that's part of the journey. "This project has shown me that you need to follow your heart, your gut, especially people that dismiss their ability to do something," she said. "I learned to be flexible and open and said to myself, 'Maybe this isn't the path I initially planned for myself from when I left Bowdoin and that's somewhat scary at first, but good, too."'

For more information about Safe Passage, information on how to become n volunteer or tensor, check online www.swcp.com/shinealight/Pages/CaminoSeg.html. To send a donation to the organization, send it to Safe Passage, PO. Box 30511, Tualatin, Oregon 47052.