“When asked if we would like to contribute to change and do something to help our communities most of us say ‘yes’ and agree that we have to give back to our society. However, we often tend to get absorbed by our work routine and personal commitments. So our desire to “give back” ends up at the bottom of our priority list and, as the year progresses, we just forget what we once thought was very important. So, how can we change?

I asked myself this question last year. I was among those who wanted to do something but were always too busy. Then I realised that, to change, I had to take action and commit myself. So, I decided to link my passion for sports with my interest in supporting a good charity.

I signed up for a 100 miles cycle-sportive event and raised money for COTA. I created my charity fundraising profile at virgin money giving, sent an email to my friends promoting COTA and asked them to make a donation and support me. In one week I raised £1,200.

Juan cycled 100 miles last year to fundraise for COTA

I was very impressed with the amount raised. I learnt that people are happy to donate to a good cause and that friends are willing to support you if they see that you are taking on challenges beyond your comfort zone.

In addition to the cycling event, my girlfriend Alexandra and I formed a group of talented Colombian professionals to support COTA and help maximise its fundraising potential. Our committee is currently working on various ideas to fundraise for COTA and spread the word about their work. We are looking forward to implementing Them throughout 2012.

This year, supporting COTA is listed as one of my resolutions. I have already set my personal fundraising goals. I will complete the Milan marathon in April and will participate in a cycle-sportive in July, a challenge including four of the most iconic climbs of the Tour de France in the French Alps. My objective is to raise £3,000.

Do I have more free time than last year to do all this? Certainly I do not. But I know that if I do not take the initiative, my good intentions will not materialize.

I want to take this opportunity to encourage you to contribute to change and support COTA. You do not have to run a marathon but do make a resolution to “give back” and make sure it is a priority for 2012. Be ready to challenge yourself. Use this as an opportunity to inspire your friends and share something good with then.

Happy new year for all of you.

Juan”

If you would like to get involved in supporting COTA more actively this year, please see our website for some initial ideas and contact Heidy (heidy@childrenoftheandes.org) to find out how we can support you.

Nuestra coparte Fundamor apoya a los niños y niñas que viven con VIH / SIDA. Hace unos meses ,la Fundación me invitó a acompañarles en una actividad como parte de su trabajo para desarrollar una Guía parala Revelacióndel Diagnóstico del VIH/SIDA. Tanto COTA como UNICEF están apoyando a Fundamor con su proyecto yla Guíales servirá a los servicios de protección, profesionales de la salud y familias.

La actividad involucraba trabajo en grupos focales con niños y niñas que tienen VIH  para descubrir sus opiniones, ideas, experiencias y conocimientos relacionados con la revelación del diagnóstico de VIH.  Para esta actividad, Fundamor organizó una salida a una zona campestre en el sur de Cali. 14 niños y niñas participaron de la actividad: 7 de Fundamor (incluyendo 1 egresada) y 7 que viven con su familia pero tienen contacto con Fundamor.

La finca es muy bonita, con una gran variedad de arboles y una cascada y eso creó un ambiente muy bonito para los niños y niñas. Después de presentarnos se formaron dos grupos de trabajo,. Acompañé al grupo #1 y nos ubicamos alrededor de una mesa y tan pronto nos sentimos cómodos empezamos la actividad con una serie de preguntas. Entre las respuestas, los niños y niñas comentaron:

“El conocer mi diagnostico me sirvió para concientizarme de mi autocuidado, de que debo tomar mis medicinas a tiempo y por mi propia voluntad. También me ayudó a aceptarme a mí mismo, a que debo ser mas responsable de mi diagnóstico y entender que puedo contar mi diagnostico a las personas más allegadas a mi vida”. Esta fue la respuesta de una adolescente de 15 años.

La revelación del diagnostico es muy importante. Si no conocemos el por qué debemos tomar tantos medicamentos, no entendemos porqué debe ser siempre a una misma hora, y tampoco entendemos por qué nuestra familia nos insiste tanto en que debemos tomar estos medicamentos. Todo este desconocimiento hace que en muchas ocasiones nos rehusemos a tomar las medicinas, pero al conocer nuestro diagnostico ya entendemos todo y esto permite que nos concienticemos mas de tomar nuestros medicamentos, adquirimos responsabilidad, y ya nuestra familia no debe obligarnos a tomarlas”. Esta fue la respuesta de una adolescente de 13 años.

“Nos sentimos bien ya que ahora sabemos el diagnostico. Gracias al acompañamiento de las fundaciones, recibimos mucho apoyo en la inclusión con la sociedad, tenemos más facilidad a la educación, también nos hace sentir bien el saber que no estoy solo, el compartir con otros niños, niñas y jóvenes, es muy bueno porque ellos nos cuentan sus experiencias y esto nos da fuerza para aprender a valorar más la vida”. Anon

 El equipo de Fundamor tenía más preguntas para los niños y niñas como quién debe revelar su diagnóstico, si creen que la revelación de su diagnostico es un Derecho, el impacto de su revelación, y como fue la experiencia de cada uno de ellos al conocer su diagnostico.  Todos los niños y niñas participaban de manera muy activa; cada uno tenía algo que aportar, hasta los más pequeños.  Para todos, era muy claro que la revelación del diagnóstico no es un tema que se puede tomar de manera ligera.

Toda esta información permitió que a través de sus experiencias nos mostraran cómo cada uno de ellos lleva su diagnóstico, y cómo ellos siendo tan jóvenes y con tantas ganas de vivir pueden ser capaces de darnos una lección de vida a través de su compromiso, su lucha, y la responsabilidad que cada uno de ellos adquiere al entender qué es VIH y asumirlo de una manera madura, y positiva.

Fundamor pudo recopilar una importante información, basados en experiencias reales para su Guía. Esto permitirá apoyar con más profundidad los procesos de revelación de diagnóstico de VIH a los niños y niñas, a las familias, las comunidades, las escuelas, y los diferentes profesionales de la salud en Colombia.

El 1 de Diciembre es el Día Internacional del SIDA. Por favor ayúdenos en esta fecha a seguir aportando en la lucha contra el SIDA.

Pueden enviar el mensaje “COTA05 £5” a 70070 or donar en nuestro sitio web. 

In Colombia an estimated 67,000 children live in care; the figure is only slightly lower in England estimated at 64,400. In Colombia, most children in care live in large residential homes, and most are there as a result of economic difficulties, threats of recruitment into illegal armed groups, displacement, violence, abuse or abandonment. With an average of 50-60 children per care home, it is very difficult for children in residential care in Colombia to receive the personalised support they so need.

In England, during the last 3 decades there has been a big shift away from such large scale residential care homes and today around three quarters of children in care live with foster families. Children in care in England receive individual support from various professionals such as social workers, support workers, and foster carers.

The Young People

Monica, Jonathan and Jennifer grew up in (large-scale) residential children’s homes in Cali, and since leaving care one year ago have been living in supported accommodation provided by COTA’s Partner “Forming Futures” (FFF). FFF seeks to improve opportunities for care leavers by working with children still in care to help them develop life skills and prepare for when they come to leave care and by supporting care leavers with after-care support, to make the transition from care to independent living.

Aicha and Rachel both grew up in London based foster families, and now live independently: Aicha in her own flat (supported) and Rachel in student accommodation at her University. They are both involved with the work of The Who Cares? Trust, a UK NGO supporting children and young people in – and leaving – care. As they talked, the young people discovered how different the support for children in, and leaving, care is in Colombia and England – but how similar some of their emotional experiences were. It is with great pleasure that I share this story with you.

From left to right: Barbara (COTA Field Officer), Jonathan, Jennifer and Mónica.

Rachel and Aicha

Life in Care

Without realising as she spoke, it was Monica from FFF who would reveal the first shock factor: that about 60 children lived in her Colombian care home, girls and boys, aged 7 to 18. Rachel and Aicha were stunned, and delved into the many more questions they had about living arrangements and support networks.

Aicha also said that ”it’s totally different in the UK, everyone has their own room, you never share a room in a care home”. The FFF young people could not believe what they were hearing. Jennifer explained that ”in my home in Cali, there were 57 of us-all girls: 4 blocks, 14 girls in each block and around 7 girls per room“. I thought Rachel and Aicha’s eyes might just pop out of their heads.

Leaving Care – “We don’t even get a mattress”

“So what type of accommodation options do you have when you leave care? Do you get money or support to move into a shared flat or your own flat?” asked the inquisitive Rachel.

When you leave care in Colombia and don’t have family, or haven’t heard about FFF’s services, you can end up on the streets.

“We don’t even get a mattress” responded Monica, amused. More seriously, Jonathan went on to explain that “when you leave care in Colombia you have to find a relative to stay with. If you don’t have family, or haven’t heard about FFF’s services, you can end up on the streets. I don’t know where I might be if not for FFF”.

Silence filled the room for a moment, as we all took in just what that meant for young people in care in Colombia. Pensive, Aicha and Rachel explained a little about the support system in England, which includes housing provisions, grants to enable young people to stay in education and support available from various professionals. The young people at FFF were lost for words. In Colombia, once you leave care there is no government support programme. FFF runs the only drop in centre in the country where care leavers and (and children in care) can go to get advice, support, and training and to meet other young people.

Independence – challenges and support networks

Jonathan probed further, asking “What is the most difficult aspect of learning to live independently for you?”. The response was moving:

You have no one to talk about how you feel with. You don’t have a family bond and it’s lonely.

“I see that others can call on their families for support and advice anytime, and when I realise I can no longer do that it makes me feel very lonely. I went into foster care because I have no parents or grandparents. I have very few family members and I am not in touch with them. Although I am not dependent on the [care] system, once you become older and find yourself without support workers you have no one to talk about how you feel with. You don’t have a family bond with anyone and it’s lonely” explained Rachel very honestly.

Aicha commented that it is different for each individual. “Some people have been emotionally very damaged and they may need more support to continue with their lives. Their coping ability may be different. I don’t want to be dependent, but some people aren’t ready to be independent. Sometimes in the care system they do not prepare you to do things for yourself, so when you get to the point of leaving the system you don’t know how to do anything. Becoming an independent adult is really daunting without support. If you are lucky, your support workers will have supported you to do things yourself rather than just doing everything on your behalf“.

Jonathon, Jennifer and Monica echoed this vigorously, saying that the worst thing about being in care was the lack of freedom and how over protected you are. Jonathan shared that he didn’t really have a grasp of reality: “Most of us didn’t have a clue how to move about the city, how to use public transport, how much a kilo of rice costs, how to budget, what our rights and responsibilities are as citizens or how to cope in a hostile society… At FFF it’s great because here we get advice on job hunting or training courses, and learn how to cook or write a CV. They have computers and a library that we can use and the care workers help us to find our feet – they help us to do things ourselves”.

Where next?

The Colombian young people were excited to have contact with young people from the UK, keen to share their stories and to remain in contact. Despite the huge differences in level of in-care and after-care support between the UK and Colombia, Jonathan, Monica and Jennifer were not discouraged by their situation. All of the young people feel that they are able to take on independent living: the UK young people because of all the support they have received and continue to receive from the UK care system, and the Colombian young people because of the preparation and support they are receiving while at FFF.

I’d like to thank the fantastic young people that made this discussion possible, and for sharing their stories with such honesty and enthusiasm. We have much to learn from the experiences of young people in Colombia and England and we are all looking forward to further opportunities like this.

If you would like to support young people who have lived in care in Colombia and help FFF continue with their vital work to improve opportunities for children leaving care in Colombia, please make a donation today.

Alex, aged 11, used to spend most of his time on the streets.  He would leave the family home without permission, and hang around with other children rather than going to school. Sometimes he would stay on the streets for several nights and take drugs. None of his family knew where he was.

Two years ago Alex came to live at the Albergue for a while after an extended period spent on the streets. When he arrived he was shy and withdrawn; he would barely take part in activities and found it hard to make friends.  Counselling sessions, a loving environment and support from the project helped Alex overcome his initial difficulties, make friends – and even a best friend, Daniel – and, through this process, he learnt how to treat others with respect.

Whenever possible, the Albergue will endeavour to help a child return to their family. However, the team are always careful to ensure that the home environment is safe before children go back to their families. When Alex was due to return home, the social worker at the Albergue carried out a visit. The team discovered that Alex’s step father was abusive towards his mother, Martha, and frequently ridiculed her and the children. This had been the cause of Alex’s desire to escape his family home.

To resolve this, the Albergue worked closely with Alex’s family, using activities designed to help Martha explore her role as a mother and strengthen her position of authority within the home. She was helped to lay down rules and establish boundaries for her children and to stand up for herself. Through this group work and individual counselling Martha was, for the first time, encouraged to acknowledge all of her qualities and capabilities, and strengthened her self-esteem to the extent that she decided to separate from her husband.

Alex and his two sisters are now happy to be at home.

Alex and his two sisters are now happy to be at home. They don’t need to escape to the streets to avoid the shouting, violence and chaos. They all go to school regularly, help around the home and are much better behaved – Martha even took them all out to the park and bought them ice creams last Sunday as a special treat for their good behaviour.

The Albergue is working to keep children like Alex safe from the dangers of living and working on the streets ofBogota, not only for a short while, but for good. They do this by working with the families of children, helping them to provide the home environment that their children need. COTA is supporting this post-institutional care part of the programme, ensuring that families are able to care for their children upon their return.

To support the work of all our partners including the Albergue, please make a donation today.

Thank you for supporting COTA’s work in Colombia.

Last month I visited the Renacer Foundation at their office in Cartagena, and their project that works with children and families who are at risk – or who are survivors of – commercial sexual exploitation. The project seeks to prevent this crime from happening within the community and in schools. The project is being developed in Fredonia (one of three “boroughs” that make up the beautiful touristic city of Cartagena), where the children and families participate in educational and life skills activities. They are also offered individual and family therapy.

The purpose of my visit was to review some of the project’s developments and meet the team members that I hadn’t already met. But what really interested me about my visit was meeting the children and young people – seeing how the activities work and finding out a bit more about what they have been learning and how they feel about the project.

The day I spent meeting the children was truly remarkable. I was welcomed with warmth and smiley loving children, and there was a vibrant and lively atmosphere in the room. To introduce ourselves we formed a circle and with a bit of singing, dancing and encouragement from the rest of the group each child and project-worker said their name. After that, the children and young people that wanted to share their experiences from the project talked about what they had learned so far. Some spoke of the rights and responsibilities that the lawyer had taught them about; others highlighted the importance of having learnt good table manners and personal care. But all of the children and young people agreed that the single most important thing that they had learned was how to react when they felt at risk.

This visit, and above all the contact I had with the children and young people has truly inspired me. Seeing the progress of the project and the positive impact that Renacer is having on the lives of these children verified my belief that what we are doing, as individuals and as an organisation, is really changing lives. Seeing the children happy and safe made me proud to be part of COTA and our partner’s work.

Despite the difficulties and problems that some children face, with a bit of support they have an amazing ability to remain positive and happy. Moments like the ones I spent with the children at Renacer remind us that many of our own problems are small in comparison to other things going on in this world. If these children can show love and happiness after what they have been through, then surely the rest of us can too…

Gina

The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in Colombia is a growing problem, with an estimated 35,000 children exploited every year. COTA is working with the Renacer foundation in Cartagena to raise awareness of CSEC and the action that can be taken to reduce the risks. Renacer is working directly with families as well as communities, schools, health services, the legal sector and local government. It is the largest CSEC prevention project ever run in Colombia, reaching thousands of at risk children. 

To read more about Renacer’s work you can read our newsletter or refer back to one of our previous blogs in “Response to a British man being found guilty of CSEC in Colombia“.

If you would like to support our work you can make a donation online or fundraise for us in many different ways.

Thanks for reading!

Approximately 2 million children work in Colombia, 75% of whom do not attend school at all

Child workers represent the largest group of children excluded from education in Colombia. Approximately 2 million children have to work and 75% of those children do not attend school at all. The full inclusion of these urban working children in school is a huge challenge. Much of the work done by urban children is dangerous and located on the streets (selling sweets, washing windscreens, commercial sexual exploitation).  Children have to focus on surviving from day-to-day and protecting themselves. It is very difficult for them to develop the skills they need for education – to trust others, socialise, concentrate, listen, share and, crucially, to have the self-confidence to think about the future and dream of a better life. It is therefore no surprise that it is hard for these children to attend and stay in school.

ACJ’s key aim is to help these child workers make the challenging transition from street to classroom (in ACJ’s Children’s Centre), and eventually into the formal education system. Over the last five years, ACJ has created an educational model, which will enable working and at-risk children to access education on a much larger scale. For more information about how ACJ works, please see our website.

Thanks to ACJ when I finally got to school, I found it easy to answer the teacher’s questions because everything I saw at school I’d learnt at ACJ

ACJ also works with families to help them understand the long-term benefits of their children gaining an education and to support parents in finding work and training.

 The ACJ programme benefitted 1,007 children, 142 families, and 194 teachers and community workers over the five years of the Lottery grant. It will benefit thousands more in the future through the guide.

The project has achieved amazing things, which can be summed up by the voice of just one participant in the programme:

I think it’s important to study because you need education if you want to get ahead, be someone in life, and help your family have a better life.  With an education you can get work more easily and more quickly, and you won’t have to work in construction or as a maid, for example, you can get a better job.  That’s why it’s important to study.  When I joined ACJ I was 10 years old and I’d never been to school – I used to spend my days out on the street and hanging about with other kids who didn’t go to school.  I didn’t think it really mattered that I wasn’t at school, but now I know different.  Thanks to ACJ when I finally got to school, I found it easy to study and answer the teacher’s questions because everything I saw at school I’d learnt at ACJ and it was easy because I knew how to read and write.  I’m in 9^th grade now and I really hope I can finish my studies and graduate! (Testimony of Mariana, now 15 years old).

COTA continues to support ACJ, so keep an eye on our website for more news from them. you can also read more in our last Newsletter – A Working Life (Spring 2011).

“Last weekend I got together with a group of friends that I’d been trying to see for months. We all lead such busy lives and 2 of us have children too, so it’s rare that we find the time to all get together. None of us have much money either. After much deliberation about where to go – the park (but what if it rained?), our local pub (but they don’t like kids) etc, we gathered at my house with a few bottles of wine and some nibbles. Oh what fun – and what a cheap way to enjoy great company! We all support different charities, and revelling in our low-budget rendez-vous we came up with a great way to support them. I thought I’d share the idea with you so you can pass it one to your COTA fanatics! Here’s the plan:

• We’re going to take it in turns to host a get together every 2 months.
• Each time, the host buys the wine and a few tapas / light dinner – based on a budget of £5 per person. Each person gives the host £10. Of this £10, the host keeps £5 to cover costs and then decides on a charity to donate the other 5 pounds.
• This means that between 6 of us, our chosen charity (COTA in your case) will get £30 for their amazing work (and it still works out cheaper for us than going out for dinner)!

We figured that in our local pub, a few drinks and some food comes to at least £15 each, and it’s of no benefit to anyone except us. This way, we have just as much fun, and our charities get a bit of extra money for your great work”.

£24 could cover the cost of a music therapy workshop to help 50 children recovering from trauma.

Needless to say, we at COTA loved this idea, and we know we have loads of supporters out there who really do want to do more but don’t think they have the time. Of course you don’t need to do this with wine, it can be coffee, lunch, brunch, dinner, football and a few beers, film night instead of the cinema, parents and toddlers… this list goes on… and I am sure you can think of more. Our lovely fundraiser Emily is part of a book club and has just told me she’s going to ask for donations at the next one she hosts in return for her refreshments! So if you’re already part of a group that meets regular- you’ve already done the hard part.

Whatever you decide to do, the great thing about this idea is that you see your friends, you save money staying at home, you tell people about your chosen charity and you really making a great difference to the lives of other people.

If you do decide to host a rendez-vous in support of for COTA, please let us know in advance, so we can send you a handful of leaflets to give to friends.

Remember:

£24 could  cover the cost of a music therapy workshop to help 50 children recovering from trauma.

£52 could pay for one month of counselling for a child who has been sexually exploited

From all of us at COTA… Have fun, and have a great weekend.

You may have been quite shocked by the news item in our most recent email, “British paedophile found guilty of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Colombia‏”. We are grateful for your emails and comments. We’d like to tell you a bit more about what COTA does to address this increasing problem of the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Colombia.

Please do continue to comment on our facebook posts, tweet on twitter and share our news items with people you think will find them of interest. This all helps to raise awareness of this crime, and our partners’ vital work to stop it in Colombia.

Bringing to justice people who travel to Colombia to abuse children is a vital part of the fight against sexual exploitation. COTA’s partner, Renacer, has campaigned hard to improve the law protecting children and continues to work with judges and the police to improve conviction rates.

But this is only part of what needs to be done.

As well as threats from foreign ‘tourists’, many of the factors that put children at risk from potential abusers come from within families and communities themselves.

Families may have little concern for children’s rights. A community may tolerate sexual exploitation as a normal part of a child’s development and family members may even collude in it. People may have no idea of the extent to which sexual exploitation of children goes on or of the damage that it does to young lives. Very often families lack the knowledge about how best to protect children and how to get the help they need to do this.

This is why, as well as working with government and the tourist industry, Renacer is working within children’s own communities providing workshops at schools, specialist teacher training and child-led media campaigns at a local level. This help children protect themselves from the risk of exploitation, wherever that risk comes from. 

With your help, COTA can continue to support Renacer in this vital work. You can make a donation here.

From all of us at COTA, thank you for your support.

Richmond Park COTA Thames Walk 2011

Sol Natalia started volunteering at the COTA office in November 2010. Here is her account of her time in the COTA Team:

Before hearing about COTA, my life in the UK was on a level plane: a regular English student doing all sorts of jobs to survive in this country… and with lots of plans and goals to achieve. But, just by chance, I found one day this great thing on the internet about a British organisation working for Colombian children. A really good feeling came to me about this, and I wasn’t mistaken. When I first stepped into the COTA office broad, warm smiles welcomed me. Since then, those smiles are always there not just to say hello, but the people working at COTA smile because they feel a joy and passion for what they do: BUILDING A BETTER WORLD FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.

Volunteering for COTA has been a very gratifying experience for me; I have learnt that the smallest thing matters and that there is no wasted effort in working for those who really need it. Since COTA organised a Colombian coffee morning where people were sponsored to eat “hormigas culonas” (A traditional delicacy: Colombian fried ants), to the rigour with how they follow up on the projects, making sure they are truly working to improve Colombian Children’s lives; this makes COTA´s work absolutely remarkable and inspirational .

Now, sadly, I am leaving COTA UK, but the whole experience has left me with an enormous sense of satisfaction -to know that, on the other side of the world, there are people working really hard to achieve better things for Colombian society. I am also mesmerised by the massive support that COTA receives, the Thames Walk 2011 was an example of this; I realised how ordinary people like you and me are willing to do amazing things for children that they do not even know –because they believe in their potential. This is really touching and inspiring.

But not everything is sadness, because upon my return to Colombia I am planning on visiting some COTA projects. I would love to meet all the wonderful people that are working there and specially the children and their families.

So, if you cannot pinpoint Colombia on a map or if don’t know so much about Colombian children’s situation; I invite you to support COTA’s work because they are really doing something positive, they are truly dedicated to Colombia’s organisations with the aim of building a better tomorrow for many children.

Thanks to everybody in COTA not just for giving me the opportunity of working with you, but also thank you for the phenomenal contribution that you are doing in my country. To be part of your team has filled me of new energy to carry on with my dreams. Certainly being part of this organisation gave a new perspective to my life in the UK. I hope COTA’s work continues to flourish.

Yours faithfully,

Sol Natalia

I met up with Libia and Diana who work for the HRBC Foundation and we caught a taxi to the núcleo in Siloe. (A núcleo is a place in a community where children come with their families.)  Siloe is the name given to a neighbourhood of Cali, situated in the foothills in the west of the city.  It was originally a slum settlement that has since been “legalized”, but remains an area with high levels of poverty and violence.

Siloe, Cali

Our taxi soon left the ordered streets of downtown Cali and plunged into the chaotic streets of Siloe.  Saturday is market day, and the narrow pavements were spilling over with market stalls, people selling everything and anything from a plastic sheet on the ground, horses pulling carts piled with hundreds of bottles of a fizzy drink that someone was selling off cheap, stray dogs running here and there, children playing on the kerbside, cars, taxis, buses, bicycles all seeming to “battle” for space in between. People everywhere.

About 5 minutes later, we arrived at the Community Centre in Siloe – an oasis of calm by comparison with the hustle and frenzy of the streets outside.  The Centre has a small library, a concrete football pitch, an open-air stage and a meeting room.

HRBC has been running a núcleo from this Community Centre for over a year now.  All of HRBC’s núcleo’s are run by volunteers, and the volunteer at Siloe is Isabel – an energetic woman with a wonderfully engaging smile who makes the children and families feel right at home the moment they walk through the door. Isabel has a slight disability herself, with reduced hearing, but this is no obstacle to her work with the children.

When we arrived, there were 6 children sitting patiently round a table, with a large plastic sheet stretched out, and Isabel was pouring a small pile of flour in front of each child. They looked on curiously, wondering what the flour was for. Isabel announced that today they were going to make a “cake” from flour and glue! The children giggled, but waited eagerly for the next step. They had to pat the flour down and make a hole in the middle, where Isabel then poured the glue (non-toxic, child-safe glue).  They were then instructed to start mixing and kneading the mixture until they had a dough-like texture. This caused lots more giggles and not a little consternation on the part of one little girl who wasn’t keen on “getting her hands dirty”, but with gentle encouragement from Isabel, she soon dug in and her hands became covered in a gloriously sticky mess of flour and glue.  Slowly but surely the mixture changed to a dough, and became more manageable, all the while the children chattered away, making jokes, telling stories and asking questions.

It didn’t matter in the slightest to them that Sandro couldn’t see, that Sofía had trouble communicating, that Peter couldn’t hear, or that Henry had a learning difficulty.  They were children having fun, sharing ideas and learning new things.

HRBC nucleo in Siloe's Community Center

More children arrived and joined in – each one curious to see what the others were doing.  By the end of the session, there were 12 happy children in the núcleo. Their parents, mostly single mothers, went over to join Edith, HRBC’s Pyschologist who was holding a “support session” with the parents to discuss and share ideas about how to cope with their child’s disability or general parenting skills, as well as conflict resolution within the family home.

Isabel invited the children to shape their dough ball into a person from their family – some of the children immediately chose a family member and began shaping and creating their figurine.  Others took longer, thinking about what to make, and opting in the end for a different shape.  Sandro, for example, spent several minutes carefully rolling the dough mixture in his hands, thinking and thinking – he thought about making a figure of his mother, he thought about making a figure of his pet dog, he thought about making a star, but in the end he decided to make a fruit basket – delicately shaping the different fruits and accompanying the basket with a water jug, a bread board, and a knife.  What his eyes couldn’t see, his hands were able to shape perfectly and the end result was impressive.

Sofía, decided to make lots of balls, Henry ummed and ahhed and then asked for help, María gave Henry ideas, shared her dough with him, and together they made a range of different shapes.

Then the painting began – oh what fun, watching the different shapes come to life as the yellow paint made María’s sun shine, as Peter coloured the hair on his model black – the children shared the paint and the paintbrushes without quibble, no-one complained, and everything progressed smoothly. Isabel sat by one girl’s side and quietly helped her paint her dough ball – a difficult task for this girl who has coordination problems and a cognitive disability that makes it difficult for her to follow simple instructions.  With patience and kindness, Isabel was able to help this girl finish her painting and then watch her run, proud and full of emotion to show her mother in the other room.

The whole time the children were mixing and shaping the dough, and painting their creations,Isabel asked them about the textures, the shapes, the colours, how many people live in their house (practising numbers/counting), and thus in such a simple, but effective and fun way, got the children to practice their learning of basic maths, geometry and colours, each at a different level.  She helped them with their communication, encouraging them to repeat the names of the colours and use the names to ask another child to pass them a colour.  Without them even realizing it, the morning’s session had not just been about fun and sharing, but also about learning and developing learning skills.

The workshop was a simple but effective way of showing how HRBC supports disabled and non-disabled children from very vulnerable backgrounds to develop their learning and social skills, and helps them improve with their school studies or, in many cases, get ready to join mainstream school. All it took was a bag of flour, some glue and paint, and lots of patience and encouragement from Isabel!

At midday the session ended, but no-one was in a hurry to leave. The mothers finished their workshop with Edith, and wandered into the children’s room, where their children showed them proudly what they had made.  They spoke with Isabel, checking how things had gone, when the next session was and if anything was needed.  Slowly they helped to pack everything up and clear away the wonderful mess of bits of dough and paint that had dropped onto the floor; and then they left, the children clutching their creations in one hand and waving goodbye to Isabel.

This morning’s visit was a good example of a typical day at one of HRBC’s núcleos, where disabled and non-disabled children share time, experiences and activities without prejudice or negative attitudes; where Sandro’s example helps the children’s families (and other members of the community) understand that lack of sight does not mean lack of vision; where Sofía’s example helps them realise that having Down’s syndrome is not something to be afraid of; where Peter’s example shows how important it is for children to share and learn together.  And in this way, HRBC is managing to break down some of the biggest barriers to inclusion of disabled children in society, where a person’s attitude and understanding of disability can make a world of difference to how disabled children are accepted and involved in their community.

All names of children are pseudonyms

If you would like to help these children & enable them to continue receiving support from HRBC, please make a donation to Children of the Andes today!