[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 19 (Wednesday, January 31, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H1120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HANLEY DENNING, ``ANGEL DEL BASUERO''

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maine (Mr. Allen) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, Hanley Graham Denning was only 36 when a 
terrible traffic accident in Guatemala took her away from us on January 
18. She was revered in Guatemala where she was known as ``El Angel del 
Basuero,'' the Angel of the Dump.
  Hanley was a native of Yarmouth, Maine, and a Bowdoin College 
graduate, with a master's degree in early childhood education from 
Wheelock College.
  After college, she helped children affected by AIDS in Roxbury, 
Massachusetts, and then taught impoverished children at a Head Start 
program in North Carolina.
  Because so many children were from migrant families and spoke little 
or no English, Hanley decided to go to Guatemala to learn to speak 
their language. While in Guatemala City in 1999, the Portland Press 
Herald reported, a friend suggested she visit the garbage dump. There, 
Denning began the work that would come to define her life.
  On that trip to the dump, the largest in Central America, Hanley was 
shocked to see a tiny hand reaching out from a cardboard box. ``At 
first she thought it was a doll, then she realized it was a baby,'' her 
friend Rachel Meyn told the Press Herald. ``The image kept playing over 
and over in her head,'' Meyn added, ``and from then on she decided she 
had to do something.'' What Hanley Denning did was to sell her car and 
her computer, convert an old chapel near the dump into a drop-in center 
for the children, and give 40 Guatemalan boys and girls a refuge from 
the filth and stench of the dump.
  Hanley soon learned that the health hazards at the dump were only a 
small part of the danger facing these children. Most came from single-
parent households, where mothers scavenged the dump, often helped by 
the children, to find scrap to sell in order to buy food. Drug abuse, 
crime, child abuse, and predation were rampant. Hanley decided to 
create an environment where the children could escape harm and find the 
kind of encouragement that she as a former Head Start teacher knew 
would give them a better chance to grow into healthy successful adults. 
She called it ``Camino Seguro,'' Safe Passage. The mothers and the 
children of Guatemala call Hanley Denning ``Angel del Basuero,'' Angel 
of the Dump.
  Eight years later, Hanley's modest effort has grown into a program 
that helps more than 500 needy children at three sites. It has an 
annual budget of $1.6 million and 100 Guatemalan staff members, 
including teachers, social workers, cooks, and other support staff. 
There is a three-story educational reinforcement center, with 13 
classrooms, a fully stocked library, a computer lab with 13 computers, 
a kitchen for preparing 550 lunches daily, a medical clinic serving all 
children and their family members, and a garden. Teens can receive 
vocational training, mothers and grandmothers can attend adult literacy 
and parenting classes.
  In addition to their daily hot lunches, each child who attends 
regularly receives a monthly food bag for their family. Nearly 600 
children fated to scavenge the dump like their parents are now in 
school. ``I used to look into the children's eyes and see the adults 
they would become,'' Hanley once told the reporter. ``Now they have a 
little hope. I see a bit more spark.''
  But the success of Safe Passage is only part of Hanley Denning's 
legacy. Her angelic touch reached beyond the Guatemalan slums and into 
the lives of hundreds of volunteers, many of them teenagers, who worked 
for Safe Passage over the years. There are 50 volunteers working at 
Safe Passage in any given month, including 20 long-term volunteers who 
make a 1-year or 2-year commitment to the program.
  As Jason Moyer-Lee told the Portland Press Herald's Bill Nemitz, ``I 
couldn't believe that someone from my town who went to my high school 
could actually make something like that happen. When Hanley sat down 
and talked to you, she made you feel like, without your help, Safe 
Passage couldn't happen,'' he said. ``It didn't matter how much you 
gave or how little, she made you feel like you were the number one 
contributor.''
  ``I've never loved more than when I was combing lice out of 
children's hair,'' added Aly Spaltro, a Brunswick High School senior 
who volunteered at Safe Passage in the past and plans to return before 
she returns to college.
  Although his sister Hanley died young, her brother Jordan said at her 
memorial that she had lived a much fuller life than most people, and 
she inspired everyone who loved her to ``give every ounce of ourselves 
to what we truly believe in.''
  Mr. Speaker, I refer to safepassage.org for on Hanley Denning's life.
  Catherine Lopez Reyes, a five year old at Safe Passage, best summed 
up the feelings of all whose lives Hanley Denning changed for the 
better: ``Hanley, te quiero mucho, We love you very much, Hanley.
  To learn more about Hanley Denning and her Safe Passage program, 
visit the website safepassage.org.
  See safepassage.org for the extraordinary story of the life of a 
remarkable woman.

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