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Sept. 5, 2008
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| Diane Nesselhuf poses with a group she worked with this summer in Guatemala. |
Diane Nesselhuf will speak of her work in Guatemala to promote fair trade and to provide financial help and scholarships to villagers during a Morningside College presentation on Monday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. in the UPS Auditorium in Lincoln Center, 3627 Peters Ave.
The public is invited to the free event, which is sponsored by Morningside’s Academic and Cultural Arts Series (ACAS) and the office of diversity affairs.
“My family has worked with an orphanage in Guatemala for 22 years,” Nesselhuf said. “Twelve years ago, I decided parents should not have to choose to relinquish their children because of economics, so I spent a month in Guatemala to find out what I could do about it. Families – mostly women – told me if I could help them find a market for their crafts, they could feed and educate their children.”
So Nesselhuf returned to the United States, enlisted the help of family and friends, and started Sharing the Dream in Guatemala, an organization that gives vendors a fair price for their products and also works with them to find other markets, designs and technical help. The organization has two employees in Guatemala. It also has a store at 10 W. Main St. in Vermillion, S.D., and sells products throughout the United States.
Profits go back to Guatemala in an effort to provide, among other things, meals and medical care for 65 elders; a school for 250 children; a water tank, bakery and weaving center for a mountain village; and a full-time doctor for an orphanage in the jungle and 14 surrounding villages. But the organization’s most important accomplishment, according to Nesselhuf, is the friendship, trust and working relationship with hundreds of Guatemalans.
“Morningside is thrilled to host Diane and Sharing the Dream for several reasons, first of all, to increase awareness of the global issue of poverty and the great need in Guatemala and, secondly, to inspire others through Diane’s story that there are things that we can do on a local level that impact these issues,” said Sandi O’Brien, director of diversity affairs at Morningside. “There are levels of involvement as great as Diane’s and as small as purchasing the goods that Sharing the Dream provides.”
More information is available online at www.sharingthedream.org.
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