Esther's Experience
Hello
everyone!
I am writing this report to tell you in detail about my experience as a volunteer with Children's Aid in Brazil. Many were surprised about my going so far away, after spending a whole academic year working in England, but the truth is that everything started there.
I was working as a Spanish Language Assistant at Teignmouth, and it was in this little town where I met Ricardo. He told me about his work with Children's Aid and his projects for the future, how he organized charity dinners to get funds to invest in Brazil, etc, etc, so, everytime there was any important event to work for the street children and teenagers in Brazil, there I was to do whatever it was needed: cooking, selling of raffle tickets, waitressing, promoting Children's Aid among friends and contacts, sending emails to everyone... I was so happy to give a hand, as I had always wanted to do something like this, but I never got the chance because I didn't meet the appropriate people or didn't have much free time because of my studies. But last year I was working and I had the time, so I really got into it.
As a consequence of becoming part of the family of friends and volunteers of Children's Aid in England, I thought that this summer I had the perfect chance to go to Brazil and get to know the kids for whom we had worked so hard during the year, whom I already knew by means of pictures, videos and comments of volunteers who had talked about their experience after coming back from Brazil.
My objective in Brazil was to learn about
the difficult social reality of this country, visiting different
ONGs, orphanages and projects situated in Rio de Janeiro and
its metropolitan area, to have a learning experience and a
real close contact with the kids and teenagers in a poor community.
After this month of learning and reflecting about the big
contrasts and great experience I've lived throughout this
summer, now I feel part of Children's Aid and I want to help
as much as possible from Spain. I can do that promoting Children's
Aid in my country, organizing events to get funds for the
projects in
Brazil and selling Fair Trade Products.
One of the objectives of Children's Aid this summer was to find a good project where to invest the funds That Children's Aid got in England throughout the activities of the last year, because it is such the misery and corruption, that even the people in charge of social proyects don't administer the money as it should be. That was the case with the previous orphanage Children's Aid was associated with, so as it was not possible to help there anymore, there was an urgent need to find a good project to invest the money and make the people and communities self-sustainable.
So, one of the ONGs we got to know is called AVICRES, and after talking with its director and learning about their work and philosophy, along with their way of working and the charity houses and kindergardens they have, it was possible to spend a week in one of them. It was an amazing week!!!! After meeting the kids, playing and living with the boys and girls in the Charity House "Sitio das Crianças", we discovered that they were not doing any kind of sport activities in their football pitch inside their place, neither in a earth football pitch outside the area which belongs to the townhall. So now, from September onwards, a sport programme is going to be developed there by Children's Aid in association with Fluminense Football Club. The objective is to use the sport as the mean to grow personally and for the life, generating better opportunities for the present and the future. So it's not far away the day in which our kids will go to the Maracaná Stadium with the professional football team and equipment!!!
We have also visited other projects, as the one created by Jorginho and Bebeto in Guadalupe, "Bola para Frente"; A project with the Carmelitas sisters in Ubá; a project called "Sport Education" run by the Fluminense Football Club, and of course, we have really learnt about the ONG called AVICRES, visiting other charity houses, health places and kindergardens. All this has been possible thanks to the open character of the projects and the people involved in them, because thanks to all those persons that whe have met, the world is a little bit better every day.
I always had the dream of going to a Third World Country to help in a project like this, and I always thought "One day"... Now that I'm back, I still don't believe that this dream has become true. Who could tell me that after being in England I was going to go to Brazil? I had no idea about it, but sometimes life has its own ways of showing what to do, even if you don't even expect it at all. Now I am so so happy and I feel a great inner enthusiasm to keep growing and helping as much as I can. I am sure that after this brilliant experience I could never cross my arms and do nothing. On the contrary, I have a great need to do something for the others. This first journey to Brazil has opened the door to make new dreams come true and I know it all depends on me. I feel very happy and I want to make you witnesses of this happiness. Although I've shared my time and my cheerful character with those charming boys and girls, I think there are no words to express all they have given to me to grow as a better person and enrich myself. You feel something special with every smile, laughter or kiss; in those eyes looking at you asking for a big hug or saying "When do you come back?". As I told them, "I will come back"...
"A person's dream, is a dream -
but many people's dreams is the beginning of a new reality."
A big hug for everyone from,
Esther
Click a thumbnail to view some pictures from Esther's volunteering experiences.
