Welcome back to the Guardería!

Today at the Guardería we celebrated the return of all of the students and the start of their new school year. As you may have read in previous posts, the Guardería is more than a place for the children to stay during the day in order to keep them off the streets. Additionally, the purpose of the Guardería is not only to provide assistance with school work. Volunteers also work to enhance the emotional well-being of the children of the Guardería. This week proved to be no different!

Upon arriving at the Guardería the volunteers happily welcomed all of the chicos. The youth of the Guardería are always excited to see our volunteers and gave us a warm welcome. After greeting all of the children, the volunteers separated los grandes (age 11-18) for a reflection activity. The goal of the volunteers was to enable the students to covertly express their fears and feelings about school. As we have discovered, students in this age range have trouble speaking openly about how they feel. One of our volunteers, who has a degree in psychology, developed an activity in which the students wrote a letter of advice to a student entering the grade they had just completed. In this letter, our students wrote about the fears they had at the beginning of the year, studying tips for the new student, and the new goals they have set for themselves based on their experiences in the grade they had just completed. We read some of the answers out loud to all of los grandes (anonymously, of course) to demonstrate that many of the students have similar fears and that expressing these fears in a healthy manner can be helpful for everyone to hear.

For los medianos (age 7,8-11), our volunteer created a similar experience suited to their age range. Five questions addressing students fears and excitement about school were written on a ball which was passed from student to student. Upon receiving the ball, the student had to answer the question closest to their hands. By making the activity a game, the students shared more openly than if they were asked questions directly.

Our activity for los chiquitos (under 7) was very simple- our volunteers just wanted the youngest students to become excited for the new school year. Los chiquitos just had to fill out an information sheet about the upcoming school year with pictures and beginner writing skills. 

Stoves, 18th of January, 2012

In this photo, one of our students, Max, is sawing a brick in half so that the group can alternate bricks over the three levels of bricks that are established in stage 2.

Today, with 10 volunteers, we were able to split into two teams and work on two separate stoves. The houses that we worked at belonged to Doña Guadalupe and Doña Delia.

In this picture, on of our students, Lindsay, is soaking bricks in order to force the air out of the bricks.

At the first house, the house of Doña Guadalupe, our team of volunteers worked on the second stage of stove building. The second stage involves adding three levels of bricks onto the initial stage. These bricks are secured with a mud mixture and cement.

At our second house, the house of Doña Delia, our volunteer team completed the first stage of the stove was completed. The first stage involves securing a cement blog base on which to mount the rest of the stove.

Nutributter project

Over the last two weeks before Christmas, Pop Wuj has launched it's second group of NutriButter families.  Women and children from Llanos, Chiriquiac, Buena Vista, and Tierra Colorada - all nearby rural communities with high poverty levels - arrived at Pop Wuj on Friday December 9th to a room full of crying babies, excited children, and curious mothers.  As before, Pop Wuj asked mothers with children between 6 and 20 months to engage in a nutrition education and supplementation program, funded by Timmy Global Health.  

After the initial welcome meeting explaining the ins and outs of NutriButter to the moms and families, Jess Reichard, Dona Lidia, one of the hard working Guarderia teachers, and Dona Lety, a member of the first round of NutriButter families and the resident handy lady of Pop Wuj walked for hours from home to home handing out more NutriButter, children's vitamins, and making sure the supplement and program was going smoothly.  These home visits are not only to make sure everyone has enough NutriButter to get through the holidays, but also to start building a relationship of trust and learning between the moms and Pop Wuj volunteers.  The stronger the relationship, the more potential impact the nutrition program can have in its target communities. 

From here on out, a couple of long term Pop Wuj volunteers will teach monthly classes at the Guarderia, the most central location for this group generally from Llanos and Tierra Colorada.  Each meeting will cover a new topic of nutritional interest - from supplementary feeding to the nutrition-infection cycle.  As babies age out, more will be invited to join the group, ideally continuing to grow the area of impact of this supplement/education program.

Christmas at the Guardería

Christmas at the Guardería began long before our celebration took place. One of the presents that the children receive for Christmas is a new pair of shoes. Shoes are a necessity for the children if they are to attend school. In order buy shoes, the women of the Guardería spent an afternoon measuring the feet of the children. In the following weeks, the women of the Guardería purchased shoes and presents for all of the children. One week before our celebration, Carmen and several volunteers of Pop Wuj packed up all of the shoes and brought them to the Guardería in order to ensure that they fit properly. 

The Christmas celebration itself was a fun and exciting time for the children and the volunteers. On the 15^th of December, Carmen and the volunteers of Pop Wuj packed up all of the presents for the children and drove out to the Guardería. After assembling all of the presents under the Christmas tree, the children and the volunteers participated in a game. Our Guardería coordinator had created a Christmas version of “pin the tail on the donkey”. The children spent about hours playing pin the carrot on the snowman, laughing whenever the carrot was placed incorrectly. Even the volunteers had trouble getting the carrot on the snowman!

After the game, several volunteers led the children in singing Christmas songs with the accompaniment of a flute and a guitar. Shortly after singing, Carmen and the women of the Guardería began handing out Christmas presents to all of the children. It was a special moment to see all of the excited faces of our Guardería children!

At the end of the evening, everyone settled down for dinner and the volunteers and Carmen handed out the food for the families to use for a Christmas dinner. After a delicious meal and a full afternoon of activities, the children left for home, their arms full of Christmas presents. Of course, every child wanted to take home the snowman to continue playing at home.

Additionally, Pop Wuj was able to buy basic, essential holiday food for the families of the Guardería. At the close of our lovely celebration, Carmen and the student volunteers passed out bags with these food items to all of the mothers of the children of the Guardería.

Lunch for los becados!

On the 14^th of December the scholarship recipients and their families gathered at Pop Wuj to celebrate the close of the school year. Carmen, our social worker, gave a moving speech to all of the students about the importance of staying in school and how happy it made her to see the students persist and succeed in their education. The other partners of Pop Wuj echoed this sentiment in heartfelt speeches, encouraging and praising the scholarship students.

This year, we had five students graduate from secondary school. For what was and is a proud moment for these students, we had a small graduation ceremony. Every graduate was given the opportunity to speak and every graduate spoke of their gratefulness of the scholarship program and proclaimed passionately to the other students the importance of staying in school.

However, the Scholarship lunch was not limited to eating and passing out gifts and school supplies. Pop Wuj also opened its clinic in order to give all of the children a basic physical and to attend to the needs of the scholarship recipients who needed more care.

Aside from basic care, the volunteers of the medical program put together a nutrition lesson for the children to demonstrate the role proper nutrition plays in every day life. This was a very important piece of our scholarship day as nutrition plays an invaluable role in brain development and the ability to focus in class.

At the end of the day, everyone gathered to receive school supplies for the upcoming year at school and to say their goodbyes to the partners of Pop Wuj. 

Birthday Party at the Guardería

This week proved to be busy for the children of the Guardería. On the 21^st of November, the children made invitations for their families for the Christmas party held at Pop Wuj. While making Christmas cards is not an educational tool, it gives the children an opportunity to invite the rest of their family to spend time together in a relaxing environment, hopefully strengthening family ties.

On the 24^th of November, we had our final birthday party of the year! To help with the celebration, several volunteers made decorations and baked cakes.

Although, the decorations would not have been complete without the help of the children pasting balloons to the ceilings and walls.

Two of our student volunteers donated two piñatas and small gifts for the birthday children! Although it took a great amount of effort of all the children, the two piñatas were finally broken and the children were able to stuff their bags full of candy and peanuts.

Breaking open the Piñata

After everyone was worn out of the excitement of the piñatas, the children retired into the Guardería for cake and gift opening. The birthday party was a success!

More than just Stoves: November 21-25

Safe stove project coordinator David Angel and local volunteer Doña Leticia led a small group of volunteers to start stage 2 of a stove in one Doña Florentina’s house. The volunteers were able to work together for every step of stage two to ensure a solid, working stove for Doña Florentina.

While the volunteers did spend the morning working, they also spent time interacting with the community around the house, most especially the children. The children, who were thrilled to have their photos taken, laughed and played with a few of the volunteers.

After the completion of stage 2, the women of the community generously provided the volunteers with a lunch of tamales and hot tea.