While most college students headed home for the holidays, a group of nineteen Northwestern students, Campus Minister Beth Knobbe, and Father Kevin Feeney from the Sheil Catholic Center traveled all the way to San José de Cusmapa to dedicate part of their winter break to volunteering with Fabretto. Despite finishing their final exams just hours before, the students arrived energized and ready to give back.

After the long journey up to the mountains of Cusmapa, the volunteers spent their first day hiking, exploring the little town, and attending mass led by Father Kevin. The next day, they got right to work on three key projects to improve hygiene, safety, and accessibility in and around Fabretto’s Cusmapa center. One group built a drainage system for the Fabretto center’s cafeteria to reduce pollution and environmental damage while the second group replaced and repaired classroom doors. The third group reconstructed the driveway at the Fabretto volunteer house. This will not only improve access for hundreds of visitors each year but will also prevent future erosion from heavy rains. Each project will help create a safe, healthy environment for the whole Fabretto community—students, teachers, volunteers, and visitors.

In their spare time, the volunteers found great joy in getting to know the children and families in the Cusmapa community. Since school was not in session, the group offered fun workshops for the children in the community to learn about music and English, play sports, and do arts & crafts. The children loved spending time with the volunteers and learned so much in just one week.

On behalf of the whole Fabretto community, thank you to all of the volunteers from Sheil Catholic Center for giving back to the children in Cusmapa! For more information about long and short term volunteer opportunities, see our volunteer page.