For a seventh year, Nelson’s annual Beans and Rice extravaganza returns.
The ever popular event offers a delicious, traditional Guatemalan dinner at 6 p.m. on December 7 at Nelson’s United Church in support of third-year Selkirk College nursing students who will be participating in a practice experience to Guatemala this spring.
Ten nursing students will travel there in May, 2013 for three weeks. They have been invited to share with and learn from five different grassroots organizations whose community work promoting health, as a basic human right, continues to bring about significant positive social change.
Previous groups visited urban free-trade zones, highland villages where community health and well-being is being affected by Canadian mining operations, and also the remote north-eastern jungle region of the country, where government health services are almost non-existent.
It is a practice experience that brings to life the incredible resilience, capacity, and creativity of the Guatemalan people as they actively confront the formidable challenges to health that they face.
This event is the first major fundraising effort to send the group south this coming spring. As well as the dinner, there will be music, silent auction, and a personal report from students who made the trip south this past year, sharing images and stories of their rich experience.
Abundant community support has been the foundation in making this international practice experience possible, and students once more express their gratitude to our local citizens, businesses and organizations.
Cost is $10 at the door. Children are welcome. For more information call 354-4791.