Cast out of their highland villages, many Mayans have resettled around the garbage dump in Guatemala City. Children went to the dump to work salvaging plastic, cardboard and food. In 2004, children were banned from the dump and now stay at home without supervision. In 2006, the University of Washington Landscape Architecture Design/Build Program collaborated with Safe Passage to design a portion of their school facilities and to transform their donated, decommissioned dump site into a therapeutic garden. This environment is designed to help the children learn about the natural world, their culture, science, math and writing, gain vocational skills and ultimately reconstruct their lives in a healthier direction. This paper focuses on the role of natural places in rebuilding children's lives concurrent with a disaster and how the rebuilding of a place for safe play, learning and skill building can help children endure and move beyond the immediate effects of the disaster.