BajaNews - 6-24-2006 at 09:12 AM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060623-9...
By Anna Cearley
June 23, 2006
TIJUANA ? As garbage trucks rumbled nearby, actress Susan Sarandon walked through a carpet of discarded plastic parts, shredded cardboard and rotting
food.
She took it all in at the city's trash dump: The men and women who support their families by picking through piles of recently collected trash for
recyclables. The gulls hovering overhead. The stench.
None of the people sorting through the refuse seemed to recognize the Academy Award winning actress, dressed in black stretch pants and a white jeans
jacket and with large, white-rimmed sunglasses. Anonymity seemed fine with her.
?The more people you meet, you realize that people are more alike than they are different and that everyone wants for their families and children the
same things,? she said.
Tijuana's privately managed dump in the neighborhood known as Colonia Fausto Gonzalez relies heavily on scavengers to ferret out recyclables. An
estimated 600 trash pickers work here, but receive no salary. Typical trash scavengers can earn $100 to $200 a month selling what they find, and
families live within walking distance in homes of cardboard and metal sheets. For many years, there was no school here.
Sarandon, who lives in New York City, has been quietly contributing for about seven years to a San Ysidro-based nonprofit called Responsibility (www.responsibilityonline.org) that runs a kindergarten and computer classes for children of trash dump families in the colonia.
On the West Coast for a friend's birthday, Sarandon drove to Tijuana yesterday with Responsibility director David Lynch for a two-hour visit that
culminated with her attending the kindergarten's graduation ceremony. The kindergarten is just outside the dump.
Sarandon first made a stealth visit to the dump. Once inside, she asked questions about how people haul the trash off the site. Lynch pointed to a man
balancing a load of trash over his head.
She wanted to know whether children are allowed to work there. A resident who lives nearby said only those who are 14 or 15. Sarandon spoke with a man
who attended Lynch's school and became a teacher here.
Lynch, who got involved with the dump community 26 years ago, first got in touch with Sarandon to seek her assistance with a fund-raising auction. The
two New Yorkers struck up a friendship, and Sarandon said she was drawn to Lynch's vision and the fact that he ran a small operation that could use
some of her help.
?He's making such a difference,? she said of Lynch, a former Long Island special-education teacher. ?Education is the key to changing any situation,
really.?
Sarandon has visited trash dumps before. She stopped at one in Brazil a few years ago as part of an effort to bring attention to child labor practices
there.
As a United Nations goodwill ambassador, she has met with people in impoverished communities in Africa and India to highlight health issues.
She said she's most interested in programs that help women and children, but Sarandon's activism hasn't always been embraced by others. In 2003, the
United Way of Tampa Bay canceled an event featuring Sarandon after it received complaints about her views of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
She told The Associated Press during her Tijuana visit that the United States should help build schools in Mexico rather than fences along the border,
but didn't elaborate.
Sarandon, 59, who is filming a children's movie in New York in which she plays a wicked stepmother, said acting and activism aren't so different.
?I think that most actors are curious about other people, and your job as an artist of any kind is to challenge people's perspectives,? she said. ?In
my business what you really develop is empathy and imagination, and that's the root of activism.?
The kindergarten ceremony was held in the nearby community, at the elementary school playground. Girls dressed in blue and pink shiny gowns danced a
waltz with their male classmates.
Forty-two children graduated from Responsibility's kindergarten yesterday. More than 700 have attended the school since it opened 14 years ago.
Responsibility also built the elementary school, though it is now managed by the Mexican education system. Students of all ages benefit from a
computer lab and art classes run by Responsibility, Lynch said.
?I think it's changed the lifestyle and goals of these families a lot,? he said.
Few people attending the ceremony knew who Sarandon was, though several said she looked familiar.
?It's good that she comes here,? said Juana Chavolla, 37, whose husband works at the trash dump and whose 6-year-old daughter, Evelyn, graduated from
kindergarten. ?It brings more significance to this community.?
Over the years, Lynch, who has a knack for networking, has received support from other personalities, businesses and organizations. Lynch said
television commentator Bill O'Reilly, the Gap Foundation and the Target Foundation have helped pay for teacher salaries and other expenses.
The aim of Sarandon's visit, Lynch said, was to put her in touch with the community. But Sarandon said she hoped others would be inspired to help.
?Angelina and Brad's baby is distracting us from what else is going on in the world,? she said before returning to the United States. ?This is
certainly a great opportunity to remind people of what's going on . . . and why not use this as a great occasion today of the graduation and the kids,
and all the promise these kids represent for their families and themselves.?