Volunteerswork and familiarisation trip 2010

Ria Delaere, 29 oktober 2009 
 Ecuador, Otavalo 

Volunteerswork and familiarisation trip 2010

Between the newsletters, we provide you some information about Volunteerswork and the planned familiarisation trip in 2010. 
The familiarisation trip will be helt from july 5st until july 26st 2010. 

If you want to visit our projects ‘life’, 
or if you want to meet the diversity of this beautiful country in an alternative way, 
a familiarisation trip might be wat you're looking for. 
All information is found in the folder, you can request at Gino Vanneste (0032)(0)56.51.94.82 gino.vanneste@belgacom.net

The next report is from Eddie De Vos and Goedele Van Puymbroeck. 
Eddie spends three months on volunteerswork for ECASSEF, Goedele will stay about a year with us. 
Both help us in different projects, of which the following is one:

News from the Montessorischool of Otavalo: 

The Montessorischool of Otavalo lies just outside the citycenter and offers education to some 40 pupils,
following the Montessori principle. 
The 4 classes, devided in age groups, are composed of children with different abilities between 5 and 14 years. 
The lessons are helt from 8 until 13. 

Because the classes have healthy and also disabled children, we speak of an inclusion school.
Normally we should require 6 groups, but because of the limited financial means 
we have funding for no more than 4 teachers. 
The passionate director of the school also teaches herself and besides we get help from volunteers 
and participating parents.
The school is out of line in terms of state subsidies from the boat because they are not following the traditional principle.
Therefore, we have to workt with donationss and fund raising. 
The budget of attention and love for the children is really unexhaustible.

In the buildings of the school, you find a therapy room for the children with mental, 
physical and/or psycho-motorical backlog. 
There are also some children with autism and concentration disorders. 
However, there is no budget available for trained therapists.
Goedele Van Puymbroeck and me, Eddie Devos, volunteers of Ecassef, help now 2 mornings at the school. 
We work with the handicapped children in the therapy room and work on psycho-motoric eg: 
balance, coordination, body diagrams, etc. .. as to creativity, concentration and social skills.

The school and the children are very grateful,
because whenever the children of the target group be taken from the classroom
there are always other children who also try to ask to be allowed to "play" in the therapy room.
Unfortunately, within the timescale provided there is no time available for all children.
The children that do come into the therapy room, there is a pleasant surprise:
because there is no "play" but mainly "worked".
Yet it is often perceived as playing and that's a compliment.
The school, and especially the children would benefit from a permanent therapist
or a volunteer service as a therapist for a longer time.
There is an urgent need for eg a physiotherapist, occupational therapist and / or logpodist.

News from the field:

The first weeks, Goedele and I mainly get aquiainted with the children.
Our baptism of fire was on a Monday morning with the kids from the first group of 4 to 5 years.
We were motivated to receive a group of 10 children in the therapyroom. 
Because the children saw the room as a playground with a bath of balls, 
tunnels and a obstacle course they felt like a fish in the water and let their energy flow freely.
It was definitely worthwhile as an introduction but also a good lesson not to work with such a great group.
That has been our decision during the evaluation with the techer of the group. 
In the future, we would work with smaller groups of only 5 children 
so that individual attention and excercises could be offered. 
Inbetween, we even decided to work with even smaller groups for the smallest children. 
Better 3 times a small group of 2 instead of one group of 5. 
Because of theis disability, the smallest all need individual help. 
We now can confirm, that working in groups of 2 improves the results. 
It is more attractive for the children themselves and we can work more targeted. 
In our first group of 2 children with autism could be worked individually because we are with tho guides. 

Andrés, who was restless and often disturbing before, in a group of 5, 
was now much quieter and coould even handle some small new orders. 
He is mainly fascinated by the repetitiv movements like the trail that a ball travels when you let it roll off somewhere.
We used this information to let him do some extra body excersise. 
He had to lay on his belly, on a thick roll, 
with his legs in the air ad his head to the ground so that he more or less formed a skis-run. 
The ball was then rolled down from his feet over his legs and back. 
This with pleasure from Andrés himself. 

Every agegroup has its own character and we experience that the children become easier to communicate with
and get their attention as they grow older. 
For this reason, we worked out a project for the oldest group (12-13-14 years) of some 3 weeks around “El Amor” (The Love). 
The youngest, directly felt themselves involved and eagerly and creatively worked on the instruction we gave them. 
The first instruction consisted of making a letter and a drawing for their beloved person. 
Some letters were sometimes so dedicated that they could serve as a script for a film or movel.
An example in a nutshell:
“Dearest Luis, I long so to see you this evening.
Let us agree in our restaurant for 8 hours. 
We can then go to the United States together and a have a long and happy life.
Many warm embraces of your beloved Maricela.
The week after, all youngsters could introduce their fiancé and read their letter to the group. 
This was accompanied by lots of fun and discussion. 
It came to our attention how open the youngsters communcated and how much they knew to tell eachother.
To continue the theme of “El Amor” the next lesson was dedicated to the different forms of love:
The love for one person and especially your parents or familiy, for nature, a pet, 
Art and music, love for an idol and so on ... 
This again led to many discussions and fun.

The work with the younger children is more solid instead. 
There is a group of boys in the age around 8 who like much to play with a ball, 
build castles and take the obstacle course. 
To get any structure from about an hour, we start every time with ball excercises in a circle. 
This takes care of a fixed pattern in the session and is a group activity. 
Gradually, this session evolves to a little more individual approach where we work on the balance 
and the steps of some, to end with the obstacle course as a reward. 
Though, we take care that each child can follow the obstacle course in its own way 
by letting the others wait until tha last child has finished the course. 
In this way, we also work on patience and respect for others. 
No need to tell you that nothing matters when you are young and full of energy, 
but learn by doing because that is the rason why they go to school. 

So far this report.
If you want to know more about volunteering at ECASSEF,
you can always visit our site: http://www.ecassef.net
 

   E.C.A.S.S.E.F. Foundation - Ecuador – South America
   TLF 00593-(0)99 - 931513
   Mail to Ecassef.net
   Mail to Ecassef@gmail.com
   http://www.ecassef.net
   Website: http://www.ecassef.waarbenjij.nu

   In cooperation with 
   Province West-Vlaanderen – België 
   Province Oost-Vlaanderen – België
   and IBERIA Airlines