Peru Summer 09: Casa Hogar

So I realized that I never really talked about what the project is here. I mentioned a littel bit about it before I left and I gave you a link to the website but I figure I´ll tell you about it from my point of view. First of all, the two that started it are Gil and Chantal he is from Belgium and she was from France. I believe that Chantal may have passed away because I have not seen her and noone has talked about here but they also have their son Aaron here. They just decided to move one day and so they came here to Ayacucho to help with the problem of homeless children. There are 27 children her in three different catagorize. There are 7 Lupes which is for children with disabilities. The majority of these children have cerebral palsy and one of them is blind. There is then the 6 pequeños who are all 5 or under with the exception of Fermin who is 9 but has the mental capacity of a 3 yr old so they put him with the pegueños so that they could try to stimulate him to be able to develop. The third group is the 14 grandes which range in ages from 6-18. We work in 2 shifts one form 6-1 and another from 2-7 or 2-8. They early shift with the Grandes simply consists of waking them up and getting them to eat and get ready for school and then when they leave at 8 you are done for the day except on weekends when you play with them/ help them with homework til 1. Then the afternoon group comes in at 2 and helps them change out of their uniforms, eat lunch, do homework/play and then eat dinner and get ready for bed. The Pequeños do all of the same things except during the week the early shift stays with Cristofer who is 3 and Fermin who I mentioned before. The Lupes is a more demanding group but can also be a more rewarding group. You do all of the same things expect for helping them with getting up, getting dressed, brushing their teeth etc means that for all but three of them you are doing everything for them and changing diapers and then with the 3 that can do it themselves they still need help, supervision, and encouragement. Also playing with them is more of just sitting with them, carrying them, or helping the 3 that are able to walk. Of the 3 that can walk, María Jesús needs alot of help b/c she can only barely walk, Eberson, who is blind, needs a little less help than María Jesús but obviously since he is blind you have to direct him. María Antonieta is the most developed and so she can walk with you only holding one of her hands. Then the late shift also often has to give a couple of the kids oxygen or help with therapy at night. In addition to us volunteers there are also the Señorita who work 12 hr shifts 6 days a week. They are there to basically do everything while we help them out. At first I felt like the volunteers don´t really do all that much until I really thought about it and realized that the Señoritas are working 12 hrs with hyperactive children and they need all the relief that they can get during their shifts.

Chao,

Brandon

This is Eberson, Yacner, Diego, and Ruth with one of the Señoritas