Service Learning
Bridges to Community operates on a unique but simple principle: that poverty must be fought by people on both sides of the bridge. Development must take place not only in Nicaragua but also in the North America. Community development is not just about the material projects of building a school, or a house. At Bridges we believe that long term change also comes from building mutual understanding, empathy, reciprocity and critical reflection about our role both locally and globally.
Throughout all of Bridges' projects in Nicaragua, there are opportunities for both North Americans and Nicaraguans to share and learn from one another experientially. With both our North American and Nicaraguan participants we strive to broaden perspectives, break stereotypes, and deepen understandings in four key areas:
Cross Cultural Understanding
Since the first Bridges trip in 1992, before Bridges was an official organization, there has always existed a dual mission: practice responsible community development by working collaboratively on community selected projects, while at the same time developing relationships and understanding. We do this by providing a meaningful experience through which two different cultures have the opportunity to work side by side and learn from one another.
Both components of this mission have always held equal importance. All of Bridges projects in Nicaragua are focused on achieving this mission, whether it be physically working side by side to make cement or build a wall of a house, planting or harvesting such essential crops as beans, rice, or pineapple, taking part in a temporary medical clinic, or having an open roundtable discussion with a group of community leaders (both young and old) and being able to share hopes, dreams, opinions, perceptions, and challenges that affect us all in life. Simply stated, Bridges utilizes service learning as a means to foster empathy for one another, respect for diversity, and a deeper understanding of different ways of life.
The Nicaraguans have given me so much more than I could ever give them...I learned how wonderful and hardworking they are, how generous they are when they have so little, how caring they are, how well they treat outsiders, and how well they treat their own families. The disparities of the world are absolutely unfair. It is up to people like us to work together to make change. — Bridges North American Volunteer, 2004
Local and Global Injustice
You don't need to come to Nicaragua to experience poverty, disparity of wealth, differing levels of access to basic necessities and quality of education, and many of the other injustices that exist throughout the globe. All of these issues and many more are present in the vast majority of North American cities and towns and in communities throughout the world. Yet, Bridges has been described as not just an organization to help Nicaragua, but rather, a social movement. Countless Bridges volunteers have commented on the fact that they felt themselves to be a part of something much bigger than the one project that they worked on while in Nicaragua.
Part of the reason for this personal reflection while working with Bridges is that all of the volunteers that come are presented with the opportunity to examine their personal role in a global community. While working in Nicaragua, volunteers have the opportunity to create a broader understanding of how they are part of both the causing and solving of the problems faced by 80% of the world’s population. A major part of arriving to this broader understanding is the process of not only examining, but also personally being a part of the effects of a long-term sustainable effort for social change, as compared to a short-term charity donation.
History Between the United States and Nicaragua
Each Bridges group usually takes part in at least one focused discussion regarding the ways in which the U.S. and Nicaragua have influenced, and continue to influence, each other. The relationship between the United States and Nicaragua could be described as long, involved, convoluted, at times tragic, and other times optimistic. Using a balance of inter-cultural question and answer discussions, facilitated reflections, and relevant literature, Bridges volunteers are challenged to analyze the role that the U.S. has had and continues to have both politically and economically in Nicaragua, with the ultimate goal being that each person asks more questions and expands their knowledge about the historical relationship between these two countries.
Agency for Social Change
Perhaps the one question that almost every volunteer seems to ponder when their Bridges trip is nearing the end is, "what do I do now that I am going home?" This could arguably be the most important question that is asked throughout the entire Bridges experience. There is a wide range of emotions, thoughts, questions, and realizations that begin to come to light only after one "finishes" their Bridges trip.
Although pictures, poems, blogs, and songs can be helpful, many times, it is very difficult to put into words and communicate exactly what one is feeling about being back in their comfortable home environment after having lived in, worked with, and gotten to know on a personal level, communities where there exists an extremely different reality. These emotions and realizations have been the cause for many to take action in their own communities at home. There is no one right answer or reaction to a Bridges trip. Each person is responsible for his or her own actions.
Fortunately, each year there are new volunteers who have participated in the Bridges experience and are struggling with how to take action and promote change at home in their communities and in their own lives. Sharing photos with friends and family, sharing a poem, beginning a fund-raising effort, giving a presentation to co-workers or fellow students, facilitating a reflection about the basic cost of living in Nicaragua for a high school social studies class, speaking to fellow church goers, choosing a course of study that will set the path for a future career with a community based or international focus, and list goes on and on. Every year, nearly 900 people from varying walks of life are faced with a very difficult question that will need an answer:
"How can I bring the Bridges experience home and implement positive changes in my life and my community?"
Program Goals:
- Promote critical perspectives of poverty and injustice;
- Foster mutual cross-cultural relationships based on shared experience;
- Increase sense of responsibility for local and global community;
- Increase understanding of history and relationship between Nicaragua and the United States.
Working with Bridges has allowed me to plant within my life and my community a spirit of motivation to work together and get ahead... without unity there is nothing ... we must always strive for harmony, support one another and share mutually.
—Nicaraguan Community Leader
