FUTURE HEALING TRIPS ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS NOW!


February 13-22, 2009:
Help build a school in El Salvador (for fathers who have lost children)

June 5-16, 2009:
Help build a school in Nicaragua (for families who have lost children)

Project Grace was inspired by the documentary film Motherland, which follows six women, all mothers who were grieving the death of a child, as they traveled together to South Africa to work in a community burdened by AIDS/HIV.  Filmmaker Jennifer Steinman chronicled the mothers in their efforts to find meaning in their loss, and discover the healing power of service to others.   Project Grace, which has been named to honor the daughter of one of the participants featured in Motherland, seeks to offer its participants this life-changing opportunity.

Project Grace brings together parents, siblings and other family members grieving the death of a child for unique service trips. We team with other established international non-profits to provide participants with meaningful service projects in communities-in-need around the world.  In April 2008 we took our first group of mothers who had lost a child to work in an orphanage in Bucerias, Mexico.

During our 10 day trips, volunteers have the chance to live and work together as they spend their days mixing concrete, laying bricks, digging the foundation, tying rebar, or other tasks to help build a school with local parents, teachers, youth, children, and CorStone/Seeds of Learning staff.  Evenings will be spent together as a group, enjoying a typical dinner and with time built-in for reflection and sharing stories.
 
Project Grace was created with the purpose of providing a compassionate, non-judgmental environment in which participants can offer each other support, share their own stories, provide real, tangible aid to a community in need, and honor a loved one.  Our goal is to support participants as they find strength in service to others. Common ground is reached through peer support and cross-cultural sharing.
 
If you or someone you know is interested in participating in this program we would love to hear from you. Scholarships are available.

For more information and/or to register for a trip, please contact:
Catherine B. Stern
Co-director, Project Grace
catherines@corstone.org
 
Carole Mahoney
Co-director, Project Grace
carolem@corstone.org

"I am so grateful for the opportunity you created for us, five women together on a working/sharing event that revolved around the seminal, shattering experience of my life. What a blessing to be able to introduce myself and spend my days not hiding the way I feel all the time. To have such intimate time with other women who are living this loss, and at the same time be out there acting for others' benefit, shakes things up, and they need so much shaking right now! It's not that it lessened the pain, but it expanded my world around it."

Nancy Ross, Project Grace Participant