Affiliate Global Outreach in the Time of COVID-19 3 Vignettes

Patty Barneond de Garcia-Tres

Patty Barneond de Garcia-Tres, Affiliate of the Guatemala Chapter and a staff member of Camino Seguro (Safe Passage), an organization that brings hope, education and opportunity to the children and families making their lives around the City’s garbage dump, is also the Director of Hanley Denning Experimental School in Guatemala City.  Patty wrote: “The emergency that we are living on a Global level because of COVID-19 has strongly affected the Guatemalans living in a situation of poverty. Moved by this, we of Camino Seguro took on the work of organizing a process that would assure their food supply and help at home with stimulating activities that would continue the learning process during the emergency.”

Salvadoran Children Mary met in country.

Mary Morris Williams, of the Northeast Florida Chapter and her husband Bryan flew to El Salvador in late January, returning home on February 8th just before any stay-at-home provision was in place.  Mary went on a Friends Across Borders (FAB) trip sponsored by the Maryknoll Lay Missioners.  There, she met up with Lay Missioner Becca Muder at her location with the early childhood education program and the Women’s Support Group and delivered dresses made by the Jacksonville, FL Dress-A-Girl group.

Marita (foreground) Gerry (yellow shirt) & MKLM Rick Tarro with Kenyans before the pandemic

Perhaps the most unique gathering during this time of pandemic was that of the Kenya Virtual Chapter. Marita and Gerry Grudzen of San José, CA started this Chapter a little over two years ago. It is comprised of members from Kenya, Germany, and several U.S. states as well as members of the Catholic, Muslim and Protestant faiths. The Chapter connected several weeks ago via Zoom and gave particular focus to how the people in Nairobi and Mombasa Kenya are coping with COVID-19.  It was a wonderful, eye-opening sharing to see how, for example, it is impossible for the poor living in those two cities to stay physically distant when they are crowded into very small areas wherein they live and work.