(Portland, Ore.)—After being selected for a highly competitive grant from the Davis Projects for Peace program, four Lewis & Clark students are spending their summer at the Criamar orphanage in Ceilândia, Brazil.
The students, Casey Nelson CAS ’08, James Cotton CAS ‘08 and sophomores Betto van Waarden and Claire Battaglia, are hard at work, improving the Criamar facilities and establishing community programs with help from UNICEF. As they help Criamar residents counteract the effects of neglect and abuse and become peaceful contributors to society, they will share stories and photos on their blog Cultivating Peace.
In this most recent dispatch, Cotton describes the arduous process of renovating the Criamar playground. The former site of an open sewer trench, crumbling concrete, and generally unsafe conditions, the playground has undergone substantial changes at the persistent hands of the peace group.