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Show UL. IIA WI LO] inició sii IA | By Richard Covia ES M.E. Ch.A at the Univertsy Of Utah started the school year off with their To continue giving them E ale “ to eat By Bridgette Murillo IR id AR caducada ll offering practical advice on how to obtain the “fish” for - themselves would be a tragedy equivalent to the annual conference, held on “Give a mana fish and he will eat for a day. Oct. 17, 2002. It was one of . dado cg Why Help Others Help Thenselves voii M.E.Ch.A? sell Fish or Not to Fish: What's New with the biggest turnouts the Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” conference has ever had with 400 plus high school students in attendance. - Confucius Just before Thanksgiving, a group of U of U students, destruction of personal pride, suffered by those who became addicted to state welfare programs. As healthy ' and capable human beings, they deserve the e ty to learn to fish for themselves. including myself, members of the M.E.Ch.A. organiza- It may also be imperative that we emphasize to them . _many high school students tion, “adopted” several needy families in the Salt Lake how vital and crucial it is to learn the English language. attended compared to this year. M.E.Ch.A also grew Valley. ) My group was assigned to a family of 14 members, who live inside a garage. They sleep on mattresses scattered around the floor and they recently came to the United States, from Mexico. We were able to gather a In America, the biggest, fattest fishes are mostly caught by English speaking fishers. In past years only half as | to about thirty students strong this year as well. That is one of the biggest groups that the U's fair amount of groceries to help this family a -M.E.Ch.A has ever had. We started the year extremely Thanksgiving dinner. We gave them food to eat one time. We have not yet .attempted to teach them how to fish. strong with the cia and as a group. In November M.E.Ch.A took on the responsibly to help four families that are less fortunate for the Thanksgiving Holiday. The MEChistAs went around to a They clearly are only looking for work that will allow. -them to afford the basic expenses in life. We made a commitment to help this family until they are more integrated and more sayvy of the American way. We. will continue visiting with them until we can see lane ble results that will demonstrate their self-dependence such as employment, schooling, and/or relocation to all kinds of stores and more adequate housing. We certainly will not linger restaurants to see if they would donate food for the pocos around this family if we see no desire to achieve that stage of It is important to state that our own Latina/o heritage allows us, the students, the advantage to better commu= nicate with our sponsored family and understand the struggles that immigrants have to face. 30 We've heard the stories from our parents or grandparents, and a few of us have experienced this challenge ourselves. We know better than to be critical, to mock, or ignore like most of our society at large. Thank heavens for the opportunity” to see and enjoy the best of. both worlds! In the months to come, we will “continue visitingwith our “adopted” families. We will encourage and support them, but we will not abandon them. It is our. social responsibility to help them help themselves. That is our pledge, and A they will be pata fora lifetime. o € less fortunate. To our surprise the stores and restaurants were very corporative in their efforts to help. The MEChistAs collected enough food for all four families to have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. - If you are interested in interested in joining M.E.Ch.A please contact Rich Garcia at 581-8151. [Top to bottom from left to right] Patrick Beacroft, Veronica Perez, Rich Garcia, Rich Garcia Jr., Beto, Jose Jimenez, Daniel, Luciano Marzulli Vargas, Amber Florez, Dan Cairo, Joe Garcia, Gloria Petroza, Matt Montoya, Aileen Hughes, Karla Motta, ale Monterosa, a Murillo, Nadia Khefafi, po “e Be part of a movement investigate M.E.Ch.A. Come to C.E.S.A Wednesdays at 12:30p.m. Union 318 or call 581-8151. 6 VENCEREMOS-SUMMER-2003:=* |
