VCU Guatemala Interest Group to Host Panel Discussion and Silent Auction

By Mike Porter and Carmen Monico

 La Milpa: The Guatemala Interest Group at Virginia Commonwealth University will host “Dirty Gold”, a panel discussion of human rights in Guatemala and gold mining practices in the Central American country.

“Dirty Gold” takes place on Wednesday, Oct. 1, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the VCU Student Commons Theater, 907 Floyd Ave. The event is free and open to all VCU faculty, staff, students and the general public.

Panelists will include Amanda Marti, Guatemala Human Rights Commission; Ben Blevins, Highland Support Project and Guadalupe Ramirez of AlterNatives. Partners for this event include the VCU School of Social Work, the Highland Support Project Club at VCU and its parent organization, the Highland Support Project.

“There are many lessons to be learned from the beautiful country of Guatemala and often it requires us to look at ourselves and how we as individuals impact the world”, said organizer Karen Rotabi, Ph.D., professor in the School of Social Work. “Mining for gold brings up many issues and forces us to think through our instinct for materialism and the reality of basic human survival. The leaching of heavy metals into the environment and the impact on clean water and farming is something we should all know about.”

La Milpa: The Guatemala Interest Group at VCU, was founded in 2007 and explores issues in Guatemala including adoption ethics and land use.