Day One: Los Ninos Board Planning Session Begins

Thursday morning, November 1st Joan Bryden (left) and I arrived around the same time at the airport where Elisa Sabatini, the Los Ninos Executive Director (right) met us. She took us to lunch in the Little Italy section of San Diego. It was a chance for me to get to know Joan, a Los Ninos trustee, who has served on the board for 16+ years. Joan has experienced Los Ninos's redirection from a "direct aid/welfare type of organization to one that is changing the lives of the WHOLE families for our neighbors in Mexico." From welfare to development, Los Ninos has undergone a transformational change guided by field staff leaders who remain vital to the Los Ninos program. Joan came to the planning meeting with concerns that Los Ninos's burgeoning venture into voluntourism might turn the organization into "a tour company and not a community development organization." By the end of the weekend, she had come to see this innovative approach, being pioneered by Los Ninos, as a way of "connecting with people throughout the world through education."