Anya Manning '07, Intern for Safe Passage in Guatemala
Highlighted Internship, January 2006
 For five weeks this past summer, environmental science major Anya Manning lived in Antigua, Guatemala, traveling an hour each day to intern at Safe Passage, a non-profit organization that works with children living in, from, and with the garbage dump in Guatemala City. The organization strives to help the children--many of whose parents earn money by gathering recyclables in the dump--by providing school uniforms and supplies, as well as a space where they can go after school for tutoring, basic medical care, emotional support, or simply a safe place to play. Manning's mornings were spent assistant teaching first grade math, reading, and writing, while her afternoons were devoted to helping out in their newly created health clinic. A native from Natick, Mass,, Manning received support for the internship from the Tow Foundation through the Barnard Internship Grants program.
On the most basic level, working for Safe Passage, which is just six years old, was a great learning opportunity for Manning, a pre-med student. She says that all of the administrators were open to new ideas and ways of doing things. And at the clinic, the doctor made sure she understood what he was doing in the exam room, how he came to the diagnosis, and why he chose the treatment.
"Working in the clinic provided me with first hand experience working with patients. I saw parasites and bacterial infections that most American doctors do not see in their patients," she says. "I learned the important questions to ask when a patient first comes into the clinic and the various forms of treatment," she says.
Manning, who took a bit of Spanish in high school, was also glad to practice and develop her language skills. In the classroom, she says that the communication barrier could be tough at times, because it was difficult to teach morals and ethics in a second language. But she found that ultimately, she honed another skill altogether: "I learned how to discipline with fewer words and show affection through facial expressions and body language," she says"
The extreme environment where the children lived--among garbage and fumes and poor air quality--showed Manning quite clearly, the correlation between peoples' environments and their health, a concept that was explored in theory in her environmental science courses at Barnard. "In terms of getting a broader perspective on the world, it puts my work at Barnard into a different context." she says.
But beyond enhancing her own studies and interests, the aspect of the internship that was most meaningful to Manning was the ability to directly improve the lives of the children. "One of the most important components of my internship was providing affection and attention to the children. Many of the students are one-of-ten children in their families and live in single parent homes," she says. "I worked in the place that provided the children with food, a flushing toilet, a pencil, and most importantly a safe space."
This summer, Manning wants to do more. She's helping to organize a service team to go back to Safe Passage from August 21 - 29. Anyone interested--students, administrators, faculty--can contact her at am2330@barnard.edu .
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