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Published: April 13th 2014
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I thought it appropriate to dedicate a separate piece to this as even before my time here is done I can say that it has been one of the best experiences of my life, the people and mooments I have had will be unmeasurable in time to come. Though I am writing this at the end of my second last week, I will likely not publish until I am done here incase anything new happens which I may wish to share.
After extensive research, I settled on the organisation called Life. In Spanish it stands for Luchamos por una Infancia Feliz y con Esperanza, translated it means Fighting for a Happy Childhood and one with Hope. Over here volunteering must be a big business, as most of the organisations wanted to charge relatively large fees, considering you were offering to give your time. I understand these organisations are small and poor and need cash injections which is fine but not if the money is going to someones pocket. I think theones I looked at were designed for clueless American gap year students with no spanish who want collected from an airport, given their lodgings and told what to do. When
I seen LIFE I knew that it was really about helpng the children as opposed to any other agenda. Life actually runs entirely on volunteers and receives no government subsidies, who the founder, Liliana explained when I met her. Their aim is simple, to go into the most deprived communities of Buenos Aires and meet with the most needy children, helping to address their emotional, educational and social needs through play and stimulation. Every afternoon thers are activities in different areas, I think there is maybe about 6/7 areas which they visit on rotation. Sometimes there are 2 places visited each afternoon and twice a week in the morning they run activities from a homeless shelter. Every wednesday they hold a birthday party in a different area, and any children with their birthday in that month receive a present, and all the local community come to get cake and to celebrate. Its really nice. On an operation level it is simple, every week they send you out the itinterary of where they are going, you can select when you want to go, and you turn up at the office around 3, leaving at 3,30 and get dropped off at whichever
location. When you register you paid 60 dollars donation and after that its just 6 dollars for transport each time, definately more than it actuall costs but when you see how little they work with you dont feel grudging in paying it.
The journeys, especially if Lilly is driving can be quite mental. Here the rules of the road are bent so much it seems like you can do what you want. Red light but nobody wanting to cross? Just go through it! Most of the areas we visit are in the slum area called Cuidad Oculta (Hidden city). When i found out that it was given this name when back when BA hosted the world cup in the 1970s they literally built a wall up around it to hide it from tourists it made me so angry. How dare anyone do that! However Argentina in the 70s still under a dictatorship and let me tell you there were worse things happening than walls being built. Anyway, it can sometimes take up to an hour to get there because the traffic is so bad, there is a car and a 10 seater van for use, but it seems if
there are 5 or 6 of you they just squeeze you into the one car! The first time I experienced this I was so surprised, not because she done it but when we passed police (who she was tlking to because she had to get past their diversion point to reach the location, and they let her) blatantly seen but they just dont care. There are loads of police here but they dont really seem to do much/care much. I suppose they have much bigger things to worry about in he city than if there are too many people in a car though. Coming from the UK where it is rules rules rules it takes some adjusting to change your mindset to - its ok, dont worry, nobody bothers here! I remember sitting on a beach in Brazil chatting to Gary and we said that back home the country just seems to be a killjoy about everything - you cant do this, you cant do that, cnt play music in a park too loud, cant congregate with your friends, drink outside, need a liscence to have parties etc, whereas over here you can, if you want to have a party
on he beach go for it, as long as you arent annoying anyone.
Once dropped off witth the other volunteers you normally have about 2ish hours until your fast track carriage home awaits you. It is hard to give a general description of what we do as with every group it is different and depends on the volunteer/kid ratio. But in essense we play, pay them attention and have fun. I think the first thing that struck me was how affectionate the kids are, they dont know you, never seen you before, but they will come racing up to you, hug you, maybe even kiss you or want you to lift them up. They just want affection I think, Again the rule thing comes back, back home you would be told you cannot hug children etc whereas here they just entrust you to do whatever. This could obviouly be a double edged sword n some ways. People in general are laid back though, once a woman came in with a 3 week old baby and all the hildren were touching it and a teenager was holding it, she was fine about it. They have these snese of communities that
perhaps we dont see so much in Britian.
With a few locations throughout the city my first aim was to visit them all. 3 are all within proximity to each other (maybe a couple of streets) which surprised me in the sense that there were always different children despuite being so close by. One of the 3 is predominatly Bolivian children who are so much more tranquil than the argentinian ones. The people are quiet, respectful and dignified, hard to explain but it was a totally different atmosphere there. They were mainly held in "comedores" which is literally a dining hall but where the people come to get food/a community room. The bolivian one served as a drop in food shelter where they would be queing up to receive their food. The bolivians seemed to be very poor but happy to receive anything, the mothers would often join in craft and the children would be happy to colour in or get a sticker.
One of the other areas was definately the biggest in terms of slum, it was in a disused hospital (the biggest in SA but it has never been used as a hospital, people occupy the
first 2 floors in flats separated by poysterene and most dont ev en have windows, see pics) Here the children have all the outdoor space but nowhere indoor so it was all weather dependant. These kids were much more full of energy and preferred physical activities and most of all to climb up and jump on you and run around. Great fun. If anyone is interested, the 2012 film Elephante Blanco (white elephant) was filmed here, its a good film and shows argentiinain slum life.
The other location I went to was at a homeless shelter in the city. I will never forget meeting the man with his young baby who told me that his wife had upped and left the 2 of them and he had eventually lost his job through lack of childcare(all the state creches are full) and evneually became homeless. He was an educated man with a broken heart and I really felt for him. The shelter was like one big room with partitions for sleeping in, men and women separated. IT shows you how easily one can fall into poverty here. Most of the children dont go to school there though they have some
in house services.
Pictures speak much louder than words so have attached various photos. Hope you enjoy! If I learned anything it is that what may appear to be an affluent, modern hip city hides a lot of poverty outside its centre, something the tourists dont see.. Slums arent only in Rio or Bolivia, they are alive and well in "wealthy" south america too.
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