 November/December 1999 (XXXVII 5) |
erion Meeting's Erin O'Neill was, in some ways, your average book-bag-toting, former Young Friend doing a college internship in fall 1998. However, as an Organic and Sustainable Agriculture major at Friends World College's Costa Rica campus, her internship was already destined to be more interesting than some. Erin headed to Nicaragua to help plant a demonstration farm (part of a larger effort to invigorate sustainable agriculture in Nicaragua).
She arrived, made big plans to be a part of the farm's work, and the following day ... the entire farm and nearly all of Nicaragua was destroyed by Hurricane Mitch, the most devastating hurricane on record. Like anyone in Nicaragua that day, Erin's life will never be the same.
Erin witnessed (visually and spiritually) the destruction of families' lives. Her own family, grateful for her survival, urged her to return home to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Before she left she gave her word to the families on the mountains near her devastated farm outside San Ramon, Nicaragua, that she would tell their story in the United States. So it was that with the support of Merion Meeting, Erin returned like Saint Nicholas to Nicaragua in time for Christmas with $5,000 in cash and supplies.
The community banded together and urged Erin to buy a "manzana" (2.5 acres) of land and donate it to eight families to live on as a collective. Since then the cooperative has grown by another "manzana" and another ten families are building their homes with the help of Merion Meeting Friends.
Erin and a Nicaraguan partner plan to continue the ministry. She will return to Nicaragua after her last semester with Friends World College. If Friends or Meetings would like to hear about or support this work, Erin asks you to contact her mother, Adele O'Neill, at 610-667-6529.
Michael Van Hoy
Green Street Meeting (PA)
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM