The school is located in a neighborhood, located below the city port on the southeast part of town, that has suffered from economic despair. The Foundation started a program to provide a pre-school care program for families that did not have any one else to help look after their kids. This way their parent(s) can go to their jobs that may start earlier as well as leave their children in a well-monitored area that will properly feed the children nutritional food and encourage them to partake in beneficial activities. It is a diverse group of about 20 students, ranging from ages 4 to 12 years old.
Due to the timing of my internship and the end of the school year, I was only able to help for the last week of school. Nevertheless I was glad to at least give the help I could and bond with the kids in the time that I had.
From past experience and knowledge of families in low socioeconomic positions, I was quite prepared for what I might come to see. The children varied in skin tone, height, and behavior, but they were all similarly skin and bone; except for one girl that may be classified as obese, the rest all had cheekbones pocking through there skin, tiny waists, and sticks for legs.
I was quite surprise though when I had to help feed a five-year-old yogurt because she refused to eat. She was not the only student that didn't eat anything. Despite the plethora of options that they were given to eat and drink - banana, watermelon, pears, cereal, yogurt, orange juice, batidos (selected and freshly made by one of the students) - they did not have any desire to eat. Was eating such a unusual activity for them that they had no interest? Or maybe they were just still tired and didn't have an urge to eat at this hour. I´m glad the Fundation also made them lunches catered to what they asked for because this gave them another opportunity to nourish their body since most of the time they would be sent to school without any food or a rotten piece of fruit; hopefully they ate the lunch we prepared for them.
Nevertheless, may of the students were a pleasure to wake up to. Of course everyone has their difficulties or makes difficulties but in all it was a positive camaraderie; one girl even stayed inside to help us clean up, another would make batidos, and some would take turn toasting bread for the rest. This was one of my favorite activities I did on behalf of the Foundation. It´s a program that directly helps those in need and also I really enjoyed getting to meet the kids. I hope the sponsors continue to fund this program since breakfast (food in general) is such an imperative factor in contributing to these students ability to learn.
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| ABOVE: The bread for the "bacadillos" that we prepared for their lunches based on their preferrences, to entice their appetite. BELOW: a normal morning scene at the morning care program: fellow American student preparing lunches, while kids, ranging from 12 to 4, eat breakfast or engage in conversation or prepared activities |
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