Explore ways to provide your skills and create groundbreaking change with UUSC program partner El Movimiento Mi Cometa, as they document over 158 cases of hepatitis-A infection among schoolchildren in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city. Support their efforts as they collect evidence through interviews with community members, collect water samples, and work to enshrine the human right to water in the national constitution.

Water Injustice in Guayaquil

In 2001, the city of Guayaquil sold the administration of water and sanitation services to Interagua, a subsidiary of the U.S.-based Bechtel Corporation. Water privatization has not solved water problems in Guayaquil. Instead, Interagua has delivered unsafe and insufficiently treated water to homes – and schools. It has refused also to expand residents’ access to water and sewage services, shut off water to those unable to pay, and neglected responsibilities to treat wastewater, compromising public health and the local environment.

In 2005, an outbreak in a local school infected up to 185 schoolchildren with hepatitis A. An official investigation linked the outbreak directly to the poor quality of water in the school.

In response, UUSC program partner Mi Cometa, a community-based organization, helped to set up Los Observatorios, a citizen watchdog group, to defend and protect access to safe and affordable water and sanitation services for marginalized communities in Guayaquil. The group is working tirelessly to document Interagua's contract violations and to ensure that action is taken.

Cost: US $1,400. This includes all pre- and post-trip literature; room and board; and in-country transportation, interpretion, and facilitators. Participants will stay in double rooms at moderate hotels/guesthouses. Meals are usually served family or buffet style. The cost does not include airfare or incidentals. Participants must make their own travel arrangements to Guayaquil. UUSC will provide shuttle transportation from the airport to the guesthouse.

Who should apply: College students, retirees, and professionals with expertise in engineering and legal matters who have a desire to effect change and promote human rights.

Application deadline: January 4, 2009.

Download the application and waiver forms today at http://www.uusc.org/justjourneys.