My First Month- In Video

My First Month- December 17, 2008

Hey everyone! I´m so excited to be able to share my experiences as a CDCA volunteer on this blog page:) This will my primary medium of communication with all those interested in what work is being done here through CDCA.

Let me begin my introducing myself....My name is Damara Gonzalez (the short version). I am originally from Queens, New York. I graduated from Muhlenberg College last May with majors in Psychology and International Studies. I was accepted to be a CDCA volunteer last September. My roles include teaching English and Art in a primary school, I.E.P Paz y Esperanza, and developing/organizing and assisting in community projects in the developing area. I have been in Arequipa for about a month. So far, I love Arequipa. I live with a great host family, and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the area that I live and work in. I live in el Distrito de Jose Luis Bustamante y Rivero which is a pretty well-developed city. I work in el Distrito de Socabaya in a rather poor developing community named Horacio Zeballos.

The following is an update on the most important recent occurances......The co-founder of CDCA and the director of the volunteer program, Ashley Sheffel, was just in Arequipa for a week to organize all the necessary projects for the year to come. Even though I had never met her face to face, we were in contact a lot since my acceptance. We got along great and I´m so proud to be working for and with her. While she was here we arranged lots of meetings with the Director of the school and our partnering Peruvian NGO, Kindness-Connection Peru. We also spent a lot of time organizing all of the volunteer supplies and entering all the materials into an inventory. When I first got here and went to the school, I was a bit overwhelmed with all the work to be done; however, Ashley definitely helped me organize all my goals and plans and motivated me to tackle issues and relationships with confidence. I am happy to say that now I feel well-equiped to run summer school and the new school year as well as forge and maintain vital relationships with the community and its counterparts.

The following is an update on projects......While Ashley was here, we finished conducting the surveys on health and education levels in the community of Horacio. The statistics will propel our efforts to obtain more grants and conduct more research to begin and maintain social projects in the community. Ashley and the school have a special relationship with the YMCA. Since Ashley is interested in healthcare, she tried to get a hold of some medical records of the kids at the school to get a measure of incidence and prevalence of illness/disease. I also have a special relationship with the YMCA....my host father is the program director. So, I will get those records from him so that we can continue evaluating the state of the community and the needs of its people. The obvious project ahead is getting ready for summer school which will, for me, entail teaching basic English and doing fun Art projects as well as playing games and getting to know the children and the community better. I wrote out some plans for the Director of the school, so I have a starting point. Currently, the school has about 75 students attending regularly. The Director and the government want to double the number of children enrolled in the school for the coming school year in March, so summer school is a really important time to prepare for the surge;) I love the kids so far and I have gotten help from friends, family, and former professors in terms of direction towards websites that show how to teach and how to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) as well as much need support and encourgement. I have some concrete ideas so far. We also have a ton of teaching and art resources in the supplies, so I´m well on my way. I just have to keep working out specific plans. I can´t wait to work with the YMCA and to get to know the kids and all the faculty and staff better. I also am excited to continue working with our Girls Group (girls from the community, 12-15 years old). The former volunteer and I took a trip with them to the park a couple weeks ago, and I learned that the possibilities in creating a program with them are endless. They are lively and caring girls with so much social and personal potential.

Overall, I am honored and humbled daily to be in the position I am in. The children can be difficult as far learning and disciplinary issues, but I am confident that preparation and constant contact with everyone at the school, Kindness-Connection Peru, Ashley, and the YMCA will prove to be useful and successful.

Please check out the videos and pictures that I have posted of the city, the school, and the 24th anniversary celebration of Horacio Zeballos two weekends ago. Also, the video with the kids dancing is from a fun dance lesson on merrengue and salsa I did last week with the 6th graders:)

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Welcome to CDCA's Blog.  CDCA is a non-profit organization working to empower children and their families through health and education services.  Check often for the latest updates from our volunteers on the ground in Peru!