Gulliver Prep senior Sofia Castellanos has gone on two Blue Missions trips so far and she plans on going on more. She is so impressed with the organization that she brought it to Gulliver.
“Blue Missions is a non-profit that was founded in Miami in 2010,” she says. “Basically, what we do, and our goal, is to improve the water crisis around the world. We travel every summer. Last year they had 20 something trips. Next year will probably be 30 something.”
Originally, the Blue Missions trips were to the remote areas of the Dominican Republic. Castellanos says expansion is happening to Ecuador and Nicaragua.
The high school and college students go to rural areas that don’t have running water or sanitation facilities.
“The past two years, I’ve done a sanitation project,” she says. “We build 15-20 latrines. They have porcelain toilets.”
If the area has running water, they can add a flushing system. If not, the villagers at least get the toilets instead of having to go in a hole in the ground. The latrines also have door locks and a tube that takes away the sewage so that it doesn’t smell like a bathroom.
The students pay their own way – costs can be between $1,000 and $2,000. That money goes to flights, food and supplies.
Some teams build latrines. Other teams build aqueducts that provide running water to communities. Generally, the villages get water first and then latrines. In order to build the latrines or aqueducts, the students have to do backbreaking work that they probably wouldn’t do at home. No one liked doing the hard labor, but there is a reward when the project is done.
“You see the looks on the people’s faces,” she says. “When you see their faces for that simple thing, it’s heartwarming. You made their week, their day, their life. You feel you are doing something good for the world.”
The students not only have to do hard labor, but they also live in primitive conditions.
“You forget you are sleeping in a school where there is no air conditioning,” she says. “That you have to go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground. You forget that when you see the impact you are having on these people’s lives.”
She learned about Blue Missions during the year she attended Our Lady of Lourdes Academy.
“In Lourdes, Blue is very popular. Everyone talked about it and how much they loved it,” she days.
She took her first trip with classmates from Lourdes and brought the idea of Blue Missions when she transferred to Gulliver. She says she enjoyed her second trip even more because she was with her friends from Gulliver. She was happy that the Gulliver students enjoyed it.
Castellanos takes joy in being a part of Best Buddies. Gulliver students are buddies with students at the Learning Experience. The club hosts events for the TLE students, including a Special Olympics and a homecoming dance.
She’s also involved in GOALS, a club that puts on soccer games and clinics for children with autism. And she’s a member of the Gulliver Health Club.
“I want to be a nurse,” she says. “I think, mainly because, helping people is what I’m passionate about. Last year when my great-grandmother died, I was there, helping her through it. Holding her hand.”
Castellanos has been accepted into the nursing program at the University of Alabama, but she is waiting for other acceptances before making a decision.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
