The children who arrive at the Puericultorio have often been abandoned. They are scarred and suffer from deep emotional gaps.
The children’s home provides a system that works well as close proximity to the volunteers, 24 hours a day, means they can placate the young children during any violent outbursts caused by their past trauma.
Building a school to replace the state one, where all the children and teenagers can be closely followed, is the biggest dream of Margherita and all the volunteers, who bring tangible and real, positive change to the lives of these young children.
At the Mato Grosso school, the children are taught with Don Bosco’s teaching method, which combines classroom lessons, play and recreation with creative and manual activities such as taking care of the vegetable garden, cooking and leather making, drama, sport, moments of prayer and meals together.
The children all have traumatic experiences and wounds that they carry inside, making them extremely fragile as well as difficult to bring up and educate.
The goal of the teachers is to ensure that they are able to build harmonious relationships with others, without being aggressive or violent, to teach them to live in a community, whilst fully respecting those around them.
They all have their own identities, each person is different and everyone is encouraged to achieve a self-awareness, try things out so that they discover what they enjoy and what they are good at. What’s more, making sure the children vary their activities gives them the opportunity to ascertain which manual skills they enjoy and learn new things through these experiences.
“The important thing is that in all these moments the teachers are present, as well as the volunteers, and that the children feel cared for and loved, looked after by people who are present and there for them. Kindness, attention and a constant presence have so far been the foundations that have borne the most fruit: a medicine for their wounds, insecurities and frailties”.
THE COVID EMERGENCY
The Covid emergency did not allow the school year to start last year, which in Lima usually begins in March and ends in December. It will now in all probability resume in March 2021.
“But Mato Grosso hasn’t abandoned the children: since October, its teachers have been distributing school material to the children to make up for the failures there have been in distance learning organised by the Peruvian government”, says Margherita.
Despite the suspension of face-to-face school lessons, they have managed to keep on some of the outdoor activities for the youngest children, who really like the practical workshops.
According to the latest news we have received
Margherita is back in Italy but her heart is still with Mato Grosso.
“They have officially been on their summer holidays since January and they are hoping to start the new school year in April with face-to-face lessons,” says our School Hero. “At the moment, the Covid situation in Peru is a bit calmer and they would like to make the most of this situation to take the children to the seaside for a week. The children haven’t been able to leave the Puericultorio since February 2020 due to the pandemic, so it would be great if they could get away for a week and it would certainly do them a lot of good”, she says hopefully.
A big “thank you” to Margherita for sharing her adventure with such enthusiasm and all the updates on the Puericultorio! We shall also be following the adventures of those, like her, whose disposition, professional interest and dedication have given them the courage to go beyond the idea of just a school education and give kids who look as if their destinies have already been sealed, the chance to lead a full and happy life.
This story is a source of great daily inspiration for our company and for each and everyone of us as we continue to play our part in promoting, sustaining and recounting the activities of our School Heroes.