The human right to water and sanitation is now officially law in Mexico! The president of Mexico published an amendment to article 12 of the country's constitution on February 8. The amendment provides that every person in Mexico is entitled to affordable, accessible, and safe water in sufficient amounts for domestic uses. 

This is the fruit of several years of hard work by civil-society organizations that include the Habitat International Coalition of Mexico (HIC-AL), a UUSC partner and member of the Coalition of Mexican Organizations for the Right to Water. Recently, local congresses in Mexico approved the amendment and sent it to the president to for publication, the final step for constitutional recognition.

HIC-AL responded to the publication of the amendment with excitement. Maria Silvia, the legal coordinator of HIC-AL, spoke with UUSC about the victory: "We are very happy about this reform. We consider this development as an achievement of the social movement and civil-society organizations for the right to water in Mexico and the rest of the world."

However, HIC-AL is mindful of the challenges that may lie ahead in terms of implementation. Silvia captured this when she added, "Today we celebrate, but we must not forget that this right, without participation and mobilization, may be useless or even worse if it becomes a tool of corporations and the interest of the powerful." She concluded with a call to action: "For this reason, we call on the diverse groups and organizations to work together and participate in the elaboration of a new water law to be passed within 360 days from the date of the publication."

UUSC partnered with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti, January 21-28. In the post below, trip participant Nuala Carpenter shares thoughts on the experience. The UUA-UUSC Haiti Volunteer Program is made possible through the contributions of UUA and UUSC donors and a generous grant from the Veatch Program of the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, in Manhasset, N.Y.

I am one of 14 people from the Main Line Unitarian Church, in Devon, Penn., who participated in the January 2012 UUSC-UUA Just Works service-learning trip to Haiti.

Social justice and taking action close to home and around the world is central to our faith. UUSC provides us an opportunity to put our faith in action. Groups of members from our church have taken other trips together, but they have been led by non-UU organizations. Taking this trip led by UUSC makes the light of Unitarian Universalism shine brighter in the world and has been a very meaningful experience.

In Haiti's Central Plateau, we worked with members of the Papaye Peasant Movement to help complete the eco-village for families who lost their homes in the earthquake and fled Port-au-Prince. When I first arrived at the village I was pleasantly surprised to see 10 neat sturdy houses, one for each family, with every home surrounded by a flower garden with a tire garden and a chicken coop behind. These houses contrasted favorably with many of the small shack-like homes we saw as we drove to the village. It has been extraordinarily rewarding to help build outdoor kitchens, a community center, and goat pens for the villagers— and to help change for the better the lives of 10 Haitian families who lost all their possessions and friends and family members in the earthquake.

As well as working in the village, we had the wonderful opportunity to get to know Haitians both in the village and at the training center where we are staying. I am amazed at the resilience, determination, and creativity shown by the Haitians we have met as they work to rebuild their lives and their country.

The UUSC model of eye-to-eye partnership, which involves asking the Haitians what they need and want, treats them with dignity and respect. It was easy to see how this empowered the Haitians we met. They are all looking forward with hope to a brighter future.

Working with UUSC in Haiti is a rewarding opportunity to help — and stand in solidarity with — the people in the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, a country that is so close to the continental United States. If you want a life-changing experience, go to Haiti with UUSC.

A few days ago, the Occupy Boston General Assembly passed a resolution related to the human right to water. It stated, in its entirety, "Occupy Boston resolves that clean water is a human right."

What I love about this resolution is its simplicity. On some level, the issue is that simple — every person deserves clean water. No ifs, ands, or buts. Working on this issue, we can get caught up in all the details, the intricacies, and the multifaceted arguments about why people deserve clean water, how they're being denied it, and what remedies should be implemented. Sometimes it's good to be reminded of the simple principle that underlies it all.  

Another thing I love about this resolution is the group that created it. The fact that Occupy Boston — part of a movement for economic justice largely motivated by economic inequalities — passed this resolution shows how interrelated various human-rights issues are. Who is likely to have their water shut off? People without the means to pay their water bills. And people with low or no income are the ones that have to deal with contaminated water because they don't have the money to buy clean bottled water — or to donate to candidates who will advance the human right to water on their behalf.

Mass Global Action, one of UUSC's partners working on the human right to water, has been very supportive of Occupy Boston because they understand the connection. They've allowed protesters to use their office for meetings and offered drinking water during protests. Building this kind of solidarity between movements is key to moving forward.

The interrelatedness of these human rights is one of the reasons that UUSC works on multiple issues — because on a fundamental level, they're the same issue. Social justice is about ending oppression in its many forms. When it comes down to it, we're all working to make sure that the humanity and dignity of each and every person is honored and upheld.

UUSC partnered with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti, January 21-28. Trip participant Casey Aspin reflects on the end of the journey in the post below. The UUA-UUSC Haiti Volunteer Program is made possible through the contributions of UUA and UUSC donors and a generous grant from the Veatch Program of the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, in Manhasset, N.Y.

Day Seven

All good things must come to an end, right? Today was a four-hour drive back to Port-au-Prince, followed by lunch at a Western-oriented hotel (next to the sparkling swimming pool). Today's entry is mainly random thoughts.

The slogan of the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP) is "Organize or die." Chavannes's view is that success will be achieved only through a movement of people who are educated about their rights and who support each other in attaining those rights.

Over lunch, I learned from Evan Seitz, one of our amazing UUSC trip leaders, that 24 people came to the first meeting Chavannes organized in Papaye in 1973. When Chavannes asked them what they were going to do to improve their lives, they got angry and said they were expecting him to provide solutions to their problems. While he challenged them to work together to improve their lot, they challenged him to deliver what the AWOL government and the church had failed to provide. Half left the meeting and never came back. Half stuck with Chavannes and, over time, helped him gain insight into the defeatism that kept people living in misery, scratching a meager existence from the reluctant earth.

Chavanne discovered that fatalism was ubiquitous. If a crop failed, it was God's will. If a child died, God willed it. A proponent of liberation theology and Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Chavannes made educating and organizing peasants his life's work every bit as much as helping farmers grow organic produce.

In many ways, Haitian rural life (under the MPP model) is the realization of our dreams, as liberal Western environmentalists. They conserve water, they create beautiful compost, they use renewable (solar) energy, they raise and eat organic food, and they live sustainably. They are absolutely the model for the United States — the $64,000 question is whether life in the United States has to sink to the level of Haiti before we figure that out?

In closing, I want to apologize if I have made Haitian life sound idyllic when it clearly isn't. The lack of basic services and basic rights manifests itself in many soul-crushing ways. What buoys me — and all in our group ­— is the resilience of the human spirit in the face of insurmountable odds. I've also volunteered in St. Croix and in New Orleans, and in neither place did I find the hope, the spirit, and the energy that is making Haiti a better place every day. In the interest of balance, Haiti has problems I didn't see in St. Croix and New Orleans. UUSC also works on child slavery, the indentured servitude of children sold into domestic labor, and rampant rape in the tent cities. Our work didn't introduce us to the Port-au-Prince partners working in these areas. Had we spent more time in Port-au-Prince, maybe we'd be less sanguine — I don't know.

What I did see leaves me feeling hopeful. I can't help but feel the goodwill (and money) engendered by the earthquake has maybe — just maybe — come at a time of ideal confluence. I can envision the following possibilities:

• The new leadership in Haiti could assume its responsibilities to its people. Evens Mary, one of our translators, certainly seems hopeful that the new president and prime minister could get the country headed in the right direction.
• The interference of outside countries, ours included, that has long favored elites over peasants could recede. Perhaps even the Catholic Church (which owns two-thirds of the land in Haiti) could see its way to support land reform. A problem we saw throughout our visit was that farmers did not own the land they worked — and could lose it at any time.
• It could be that the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) will cede some of the power, money, and control they have accumulated over the years to allow the government to assume more responsibility. The world's support of the NGOs doing great work in Haiti is in many ways harmful — Haitians look to NGOs for health care, education, and infrastructure instead of their government. That must change, and the NGOs must work with the government to shift that dynamic.

"Makanon fasnu kontinuye lite ou Ayiti." The song is in my head constantly. I think that is because the Haitians want us to entwine our strength with theirs to continue to fight for Haiti. And so we will. This week has entirely been a privilege for us, and we were embarrassed by the gratitude poured on us. I thank every one of the UUSC staff for maxing out our visit, in terms of what we did and what we learned and what we saw. Wendy Flick, Evan Seitz, Kara Smith, and Cassandra Ryan — thank you from the bottom of my heart.

UUSC partnered with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti, January 21-28. Trip participant Casey Aspin writes about her experience in the post below. The UUA-UUSC Haiti Volunteer Program is made possible through the contributions of UUA and UUSC donors and a generous grant from the Veatch Program of the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, in Manhasset, N.Y.

Day Six

On our first day at the eco-village, the resident families suggested a two-hour meeting for us to get to know each other. On day six, our indefatigable Main Line Unitarian Church crew lined up to deliver more than 100 cinder blocks into the large community building (which now has a roof), followed by nine wide planks that we bought for the occasion. We created nine benches (a U-shaped arrangement with three rows per side). We shared with them the lunch we brought, and then Rev. Osterman explained the origins of Unitarian Universalism and of UUSC. Then they told of their lives after the earthquake. It was a sobering conversation. They lost family members, all their belongings, and they fought to rescue people from the rubble. Rescuers and rescuees drank rum to survive the awfulness: imagine using a machete to severe someone's limbs to free them from a collapsed building. Apparently this was quite common. One man's mother went mad from the trauma.

The leader of the group, Laurore, was a labor-rights activist who had met Chavannes Jean-Baptiste (the founder and leader of MPP) in Port-au-Prince. He called Chavannes after the quake and asked for advice. Chavannes said to come to Papaye. Laurore said he couldn't abandon the people he had worked with and their families. Chavannes said to bring them. Laurore said they had nothing but the shirts on their backs. Chavannes said that MPP would clothe them. When the one refugee's mother went mad, he asked Chavannes for help finding a nursing home in Port-au-Prince. Chavannes told the man that if he put his mother there, he would have to put Chavannes there as well. Chavannes found medication to help the woman cope. It was biblical. You can see why Chavannes is revered in the Central Plateau. And you can see why leaders of countries like Haiti (who have catered to the economic elites who control the coffee, cotton, and sugar production) have found people like Chavannes to be a threat.

The 50 people who call the eco-village their home — this cluster of cinder-block houses surrounded by mango trees with a solar-powered well — are clearly still somewhat in shock at their good fortune. They lived in hell (their word), and now they are in relative paradise. Laroire summed it up best: Before, he burned tires during protests in Port-au-Prince. Now tires provide him with his future.

We also were moved by the villagers' response to the gray- and white-haired members of our delegation. Three women in our group are 69, 70, and 71 (and carried cinder blocks, rocks, and mortar with the rest of us). They have been married longer than the life expectancy of most Haitians. The eco-village men (likely in their 20s and 30s) wanted their pictures taken with them and thanked them individually for making the sacrifice to travel to work on the village. They have probably all lost their mothers, some in the earthquake, and they were clearly moved that older women came to support them. The applause when each of the women listed their number of grandchildren and great grandchildren also, I guess, signified happiness at their longevity and ability to enjoy their offspring. I doubt many Haitians have that luxury.

UUSC partnered with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti, January 21-28. Trip participant Casey Aspin writes about her experience in the post below. The UUA-UUSC Haiti Volunteer Program is made possible through the contributions of UUA and UUSC donors and a generous grant from the Veatch Program of the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, in Manhasset, N.Y.

Day Five

My earlier entries neglected to explain that we made a four-hour trip from Port-au-Prince due north to Papaye (near Hinche) in the Central Plateau. We went from Global South urban poverty (crowded, smelly from burning garbage, buzzing with activity) to rural poverty (dotted with shacks, tethered animals, and a steady stream of people headed to market to sell wares — most on foot, some leading a donkey, and for the comparatively well-off a motorbike taxi provided transport).

Once in Papaye, we settled into a simple dorm on the grounds of the training center for the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP). Other dorms were filled with people from all over the lower and central highlands who came to learn about tire gardens, drip irrigation, natural pesticides, and other things of import to Haitian farmers.

On this day, we met with the MPP women's group. We learned, for instance, that it's a five- to six-hour walk to get to a medical clinic (which is likely to be poorly staffed and ill equipped). Violence against women is endemic in Haiti, and MPP is no exception. Part of the solution is "animators," who use songs and drawings to teach illiterate women about their rights. I remain confused about the value of understanding rights when there are no nearby police or courts to enforce them. My interpretation — reading between the Creole lines — is that women will not turn in their abusers because they need their financial support. Why should Haiti be different from any other country? MPP women see the solution as — surprise — tire gardens and livestock. A woman who can provide for herself and her children can leave an abusive spouse. And MPP women support each other, providing training and scholarships so that more girls can become leaders. Tuition is $40 a year for elementary school and $300 a year for high school, so schooling ends for many at a young age.

The MPP women had many questions for us. For instance, what do our husbands do to protect us? There was much laughter at this question, and I worry that we didn't explain why. But it really brought home the difference between our lives and theirs. We don't live in fear. And, for the women in our group, thankfully, college, a house, a car, health care — these are all givens.

The visit ended with a tour of one woman's tire garden — the biggest and best we've seen. She grew turnips, spinach, onions, bell peppers, parsley, and tomatoes. Like everyone else who gave us garden tours, she was very proud.

UUSC partnered with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) on a joint volunteer trip to Haiti, January 21-28. Trip participant Casey Aspin writes about day four of her experience in the post below. The UUA-UUSC Haiti Volunteer Program is made possible through the contributions of UUA and UUSC donors and a generous grant from the Veatch Program of the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, in Manhasset, N.Y.

Day Four

This week is going by way too fast. We got an earlier start today. Job one was hauling rocks from a pile to a square trench, where eco-villagers dropped the stone into the neatly dug trench, splattered it with slush cement, repeat. I live in a stone house and admired the skill of the Haitian masons recreating what Irish peasants made in Pennsylvania 240 years ago. The foundations were sturdy and attractive. Next was hauling cinder block to lay on top of the foundations. Between us we worked on three community kitchens (possibly more yesterday). I did little mango sawing. Joel is eager for my e-mail and for money. I don't blame him — I'd do the same in his shoes. (Did I say shoes? Sorry, flip flops). But it isn't my place; I told him we give only to MPP, which is his employer this week. This pilot village has been such a success that a Presbyterian group wants to finance four more. I told Joel there should be plenty more work.

After lunch we went to the market in Hinche. Very tough bargainers. We bought some supplies for the kitchens, but the general feeling was the fix was in. We managed to buy bowls, knives, and pots.

The upside of bouncing around in the SUVs is learning about my companions du route. Today I learned how Wendy Flick went from being a leader in a hospice program in Sante Fe to an organizer of international programs for a private foundation (whose donor supported the hospice). Her focus became Haiti and, when the foundation wound down, UUSC grabbed  her — a very smart move. She is fluent in Creole, she beams joy, the Haitians love her, and she's a good organizer who has been in sync with UUSC's modus operandi for a decade — we couldn't have found a more committed, effective leader.

And then there's Evens Mary, one of our translators. He moved from Haiti to New Jersey at age eight, later became a paralegal at a law firm in Newark, and returned to Haiti after the earthquake, working with U.S. lawyers who came down to help Haitians deal with immigration issues. They quickly learned about the prevalence of rape, so they shifted focus and are now working, with Evens's help, to enforce Haiti's law criminalizing rape (a law which is only six years old). Evens said the police don't enforce the law against rape, and no lawyers have stepped up to demand justice for victims. So the U.S. team (including lawyers from Reed Smith in Philly) is pressing the Haitian courts to enforce the law. If they don't succeed, they will take the issue (and mountains of documentation) to the International Court. Evens is so committed to this work. I suggested that it is difficult for women to obtain justice if they don't have power in the government. He agreed that is a problem in Haiti, but he said it is changing — slowly. Thanks to people like him!

Our afternoon was spent in the company of about 50 MPP students from two classes. One is working on erosion control, a major problem in Haiti, and the other is learning farming techniques to take back to their families. During our Q&A session, it became clear how much Haitians love their country and how much wounds them that it is portrayed negatively to the outside world. They clapped and cheered when we said we would go back to the United States and tell of the beautiful gardens they are creating and of the hope they provide for all Haitians. They just about went wild when we sang to them one of their most popular songs in Creole.

These are proud people who are doing everything they can to better themselves - saving and enriching soil, pumping water by hand or solar power, conserving seeds, diversifying food sources. They clearly resent being portrayed as the basket case of the Western Hemisphere, and we can understand why. Imagine having every American, successful or not, equated to the sideshow that passes for government in Washington, D.C. Right? No one wants to be judged by the failings of their so-called leaders.

I was curious about the natural pesticide and asked the farmers what is in it. (Answer: boil tobacco leaves in water, add soap and oil, and spray on plants). I was taken by how offended farmers were by the notion of using anything other than natural pesticides. They love their soil the way a mother might love a child who has nearly died and whom she now cares for with great tenderness. Haitians don't take soil for granted because they have lost so much of it and they need it so badly. (Haiti is 98 percent denuded of forest. UUSC is working with MIT to develop alternative sources of charcoal needed for cooking.)

A word about the MPP song we sang: Makanon fasnu kontinuye lite ou Ayiti. Or something like that. It translates to the following: "Entwine your strength to continue to fight for Haiti." This country has been stepped on by the world's great powers for centuries, and the people are genetically predisposed­ — as part of the only enslaved country to successfully revolt against their masters — to fight for themselves, regardless of the cost.