Santa Adriana Center

For my Pobreza y Desarollo (Povery and Development) class, we have a community service component that we need to fulfill. It’s pretty open ended – our professor took us to a couple different places in Santiago where we could volunteer as suggestions but also told us we could look into any other locations we wanted on our own time. All of the locations that were suggested are in the very south of the city, also known as the poorest part of the city. It’s pretty far from where all of us students live – about an hour by metro. I don’t feel particularly unsafe or uncomfortable in that part of the city but then again, I’ve only been during the day and I’ve always been with at least 3 other people. I definitely wouldn’t want to go alone and/or at night.

Directly translated: "InfoCap: The Worker College"
   

The first place we went as a group was a center for adults looking to improve the skills they need to get better jobs. The name of the center was called InfoCap.There were classes for learning English, classes for learning how to be a nurse, how to be a chef, how to be a welder, etc. It reminded me of a vocational school. I thought it was interesting but other than teaching English, I didn't feel that I had the proper skills necessary to actually help anybody who was there.

Directly translated: Holy or Saint Adriana's "Open Center"

The second place that we went was a recreation center for at-risk kids called Centro Abierto Santa Adriana (CASA). The kids there come from poor families consisting of single parents, drug addicted parents, or worse. Every day they come straight from school and the staff there helps them with homework and plays with them until dinner time when they have to go home. There is between 40-60 kids there, aged 4-14, on any given day.

            For my service, I chose to volunteer at CASA. I’ve volunteered with children a lot in the past so I felt the most comfortable in that environment. Kyle, Theo, Dee and I all go together on Monday afternoons. Other students in our program go on other days of the week or volunteer at different places. The kids at CASA have a variety of needs. Some have behavioral problems, some have attitude problems and some are just need guidance in general. Something I noticed right off the bat was the way the kids acted. On our first day there, they came right up and attached themselves to us. They wrapped their arms around our necks, pulled on our hands and followed us around wherever we went. They always wanted to be the ones sitting next to us or the ones we were talking to. They would argue amongst each other who we should give our attention to next.  None of them seemed to have any concept of boundries. It felt overwhelming at first and now I just feel sad because I imagine they have to behave this way to get any sort of attention at home.

           I look forward to continue working with them during the rest of my semester here in Chile. It'll be interested to see the relationships I form with them and to see their progress and growth. All of them are living under unfortunate circumstances that are out of their control and if playing with us is what makes them happy, I'm proud to be a part of that.