#abatucsd

Throughout my experience with Alternative Breaks thus far, I have learned so much; not only about HIV/AIDS and the community in Double Head Cabbage Village, Belize, but also about social justice, social inclusion, and other topics that my peers face right here at UC San Diego. I was fortunate enough to have had a family that supported and sheltered me from many of the struggles our family experienced. My family never had much, but it never seemed like it. However, privilege is not just having sufficient means to live a comfortable life. It is not just the ability to endure daily living expenses and have material possessions. Privilege is also very much a state of mind. It means that one does not have to worry about various problems that others from a certain socioeconomic status, race, gender, etc. may experience on a daily basis. This was something that I have learned recently, and this notion inspires me to seek change in communities around the world. I joined AB to learn more about the world around me; while I know that there is much social justice work that needs to be done, I never really knew specific issues and what my role is in solving these issues. I joined AB to invest my time into a community in need. I believe the most impact service is not seen in numbers. It is not about how large the community our group services to, but how impactful that service is in individual members of the community.

Coming into this school year, I knew I wanted to get more involved and take a more active role in serving the community. While my first two years were great as I focused on school and my personal interests as I transitioned into college, I felt that I was finally ready to break out of my comfort zone and be a part of something that was outside of just myself. I found out about Alternative Breaks through some friends and immediately knew that it was something I wanted to do as it would be an opportunity to do direct service with a close-knit group of people who shared my passion of health education and preventative sexual health! As a Public Health major, these ideas of preventative interventions and reducing health disparities among disadvantaged communities are ingrained into my brain, so AB Safe and Sound was the perfect match for what social justice issues I wanted to face. I am so excited to go to Belize to not only do what I can to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS among this high-risk community, but also to build relationships with these high schoolers and to learn things from them that I can keep with me and continue to build upon for the rest of my life.

In our never ending efforts towards active citizenship, a few of our participants chose to engage themselves in other Social Justice Issues! Alternative Weekends is a program within Alternative Breaks that gives participants the opportunity to serve the local community, and this quarter the chosen SJIs were menstruation and homelessness! Featuring a presentation on the intersectionationality of menstruation by speaker Shawna Held-Hook, Leira, Cathy, and Ryan worked with non-profit organization #HappyPeriod to package menstruation products together and then a few groups went out to hand them to homeless residents of San Diego! Other groups hand delivered the packages to LGBTQ youth housing at Sunburst Apartments and Monarch School.

Here are their takeaways from this weekend:

Cathy:

“As we were walking through their neighborhood, I was telling everyone to take care, have a nice day, hello, etc. and I saw this sign in this woman’s home that said, ‘SMILE! You’re beautiful!!! :)’ It made me cheese and I immediately said, ‘You’re beautiful too!’ and she responded with a grin, ‘Thank you, you’re all beautiful!’ At that moment, I wanted to take a photo with her for keepsake, but I’m not much of a photo person anyway, so my group and I continued on our way. HOWEVER, we eventually turned around on the street, so when I saw her again, I was hecka happy. I ran over and asked if I could take a picture with her for my own sake to remember her positivity. She was like, ‘Yes!!’ and stood up, put her arm out to me, and I leaned in. At first, I wasn’t sure whether or not I should touch her because of taboo and I’m a germaphobe, but I shouldn’t be thinking like that towards a human being and I definitely acknowledge that.

We took the picture and she asked to see it. Once she saw it, she was so smiley and started to tell me about her granddaughter (or daughter?) who’s currently playing basketball in high school. After that, we hugged and it was such a tight and warm one. For the record, she didn’t smell ‘bad’ or anything, so screw stereotypes of the homeless. Just a really humanizing moment in the issue of homelessness, ya know? Every time I look at that photo (I’ve looked at it quite a few times today), I’m mesmerized by her pearly whites, beauty, and grace.

Just because I did service today doesn’t mean that I’m gonna go hug every homeless woman I see. It’s hard to break down the barriers and structures that my parents and society have taught me. I definitely think it was the environment of my situation and Alternative Weekends that made me feel brave enough to do something like that. For example, if I was with my mom, I wouldn’t randomly go hug a homeless woman, let alone a stranger, nor do I think I will start conversations with homeless people at stoplights after this experience. However, I can start having a more open mind of ALL people. I can also start carrying more pads to hand out to the homeless, since I usually don’t have cash on me. Period powaaaa!”

Leira:

“I really enjoyed this weekend and, more than anything, it made me reflect on the privileges that I have. Also, this quarter has been really tough academically for me and I'm finally taking classes that actually have to do with my major, but this weekend was really motivating in that it makes me want to keep studying so that I can use my skill set to help better social justice issues like these. I learned a lot about the intersectionality of menstruation and homelessness, two extremely stigmatized issues, and I like that the service is super hands-on and direct.”

Ryan:

“From a the perspective of someone who doesn’t menstruate, this weekend’s educational aspect was huge for me. Our speaker Shawna was amazing in how enthusiastic she was about menstruation and how passionate she was about fighting the stigma surrounding it. She brought in many different menstrual products and this weekend really was a door being opened into an entirely new world; a world that half the population has to live through once a month. Just being around so many positive individuals openly discussing and asking questions about menstruation taught me more than I’ve learned about the subject in the previous 22 years of my life. Thank you Shawna, and thank you Alternative Weekends for the amazing experience!”

Photo of Cathy and her new friend! More photos will be uploaded here when available.

This week’s Education,Orientation, and Training activity was led by Leira Digma and Ryan De Leon! They shared cultural values, beliefs, and glimpses of daily life in Belize, and drew contrast with our lives here at UCSD with a privilege walk! During the walk, they presented statements that participants stepped forward if they identified with. For example, “Step forward if you’ve had to share a room outside of college”. Steps were cumulative and at the end of the activity, most people had taken a different number of steps. The objective of the privilege walk is to visually represent how we perceive and how aware we are of our own privilege as we go through life.