For a few months now I have been blessed to spend many of my Saturday mornings volunteering with a community organization here in Linares. They started a project called "Escuelita We Liwen". Escuelita {es-kweh-lee-tah} means "school" in Spanish and we liwen {way-lee-when} means "new dawn" in the language of the native people of Chile. It is called New Dawn because it takes place in the neighborhood of Linares that carries that name: Nuevo Amanecer {Nu-eh-voh-Ah-mahn-eh-ser}. While the neighborhood may officially be named Nuevo Amanecer, most people in Linares refer to it by its old name of Huapi {wah-pee}. Often when I hear residents of Linares talk about Huapi, it is said with, well, a certain tone...allow me to help you imagine that tone: Huapi is "on the other side of the tracks" and has been known for poverty, crime, and violence. People are always advising to "watch your purse" and "don't go there at night". Can you imagine the tone? "Huaaapi." Yeah, that's it. (Don't worry, Mom...I only venture out there during the day and I have NEVER felt unsafe!) In recent years the city has been trying to help the image of the neighborhood in different ways, one of them being using the name "Nuevo Amanecer". The non-profit organization I am volunteering with hopes to offer encouragement and provide enthusiasm for the youth living in the Nuevo Amanecer neighborhood. They offer 2 services to the neighborhood: 1) Tuesday After-School Homework Help Lots of high school and college students as well as some adults offer their assistance on Tuesday evenings. Any student with any question in any school subject or needing reinforcement can come and receive help for free! 2) Saturday Workshops The volunteers who come on Saturday offer a variety of workshops for both youth and adults. Currently the workshops offered include: Kinesiology, Community Garden, and English. (Can you guess which one I help with?) The Kinesiologist helps people learn to stretch and advises them on different health topics. The community garden leader has worked with the youth to: dig space for the garden, plant different flowers and vegetables, build a fence, and start a community compost area. In the English workshop we play a lot of different games to review colors, numbers, animals, days of the week, etc. If students need specific help reviewing for a test, we try to focus on that as well. The leaders of the group organized an extra special Saturday activity in October. Together everyone walked down to a small park that is by a river at the edge of the community. They discussed the importance of taking care of the environment around us, had a healthy snack, and then worked to pick up the garbage around the river. I am excited to watch what happens with this program and I pray that it continues to grow! My schedule right now doesn't allow me to help every Saturday, but I do go whenever possible! And to be honest, I am not always thrilled about getting up and spending my entire Saturday morning teaching. But you know what? Once I get there, I am always happy that I went and I thank God for the blessing it is to be there! God is so good! All of these pictures are from the organization's Facebook page. If you're on Facebook, you can see/read more about them and their work HERE.
And while you're on Facebook, why not check out and give a thumbs up to our church page HERE. You can keep updated on our building project and other fun events!
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