Comunicado : DS&H Cierre / Closing down / Fermeture

La Fundación DS&H cerró sus puertas el 13 de mayo del 2013 con recepción del MIES del acuerdo ministerial #0124 aprobando su disolución. Luego de 4 años de operación, sus dos proyectos socio-educativos de calle, Cuéntamelo Todo Quito & Cuéntamelo Todo Ibarra fueron trasladados fines 2012-inicios 2013 a su socio proyecto Fe y Alegría, segundo proveedor de educación en el Ecuador y están ahora liderados y ejecutados por sus equipos locales, socios y estudiantes. Para más noticias...

----

DS&H drew its curtains on 13 may 2013 further to being granted by the Ministry of Economic & Social Inclusion (MIES) resolution #0124 dissolving it. After close to 4 years of operation, its two socio-educational street projects, Cuéntamelo Todo Quito  & Cuéntamelo Todo Ibarra were handed over end 2012-early 2013 to its project partner Fe y Alegría, second education provider in Ecuador, and are now led and executed by its local teams, partners and students. For more news...

----

La Fondation DS&H a fermé ses portes le 13 mai 2013 après avoir reçu du Ministère d’Inclusion Economique et Social (MIES) l’accord Ministériel #0124 autorisant sa liquidation. Après presque 4 ans d’opération, ses deux projets socio-éducatifs Cuéntamelo Todo Quito & Cuéntamelo Todo Ibarra ont été transférés fin 2012-début 2013 à son partenaire projet Fe y Alegría, deuxième organisme d’éducation en Equateur, et sont maintenant exécutés par ses équipes locales, partenaires et étudiants. Plus d’informations...

Cuéntamelo Todo Quito & Cuéntamelo Todo Ibarra: now Fe y Alegría projects!

Between October and December 2012, DS&H handed over its two projects, Cuéntamelo Todo Quito and Cuéntamelo Todo Ibarra, to Fe y Alegría (FyA), its project partner and second Education provider in Ecuador.

Part of a 3 year-agreement, the two street projects set up and executed by DS&H with the support of FyA, since May 2009 in Quito’s old town and October 2011 in Alpachaca, a disadvantaged suburb of Ibarra, have now come under FyA’s leadership. The positive and trusting relationship that grew over the 4-year partnership since the initial design of the “Cuéntamelo Todo" concept has laid the seedbed for a smooth and seamless project transition end of 2012.

Fe y Alegría, a forerunner of Popular Education offers an inclusive and comprehensive approach to Education across Latin America. In Ecuador, beyond collaborating with the government to bring education to the poorest and furthest communities, it also counts under its umbrella informal education centres, provides education for disabled children, trains youth as well as runs centres aimed at fostering education through sports. Cuéntamelo Todo Ibarra (CTI) and Cuéntamelo Todo Quito (CTQ) join this array of educational offers as FyA’s first two "alternative street education units” bringing its centres to a total of 77 in Ecuador.

Sitting under Fe y Alegria’s National Pastoral Department, which heads up most of its social endeavours, CTQ & CTI naturally fit into its mission, vision as well as aspiration to build closer ties with local communities, particularly children and adolescents at risk, and, as and where possible, their family members.

Working from the street with incredibly dedicated & motivated teams, CTQ & CTI offer a tailored range of recreational activities set in a rights-based approach resorting -thanks to a long-standing collaboration with the Belgian organisation Mobile School- to a Mobile School and an ambulant Book Bank. Beyond providing a space for game and trust, this approach seeks to leverage kids‘creativity and build on their self-esteem for them to become better informed and active agents of social change.

 

 CTQ  - A brief update 

CTQ 's first day on the 24 de Mayo, Historic Centre, Quito



On October 17th 2012, and to celebrate Fe y Alegría’s 48th anniversary, CTQ moved from the famously touristic Plaza San Francisco (where it had been operating since 2009) to set up tent in the recently renovated and underprivileged area of Quito’s old town, the 24 de Mayo.

CTQ is now directly led by FyA’s students, many of which have been involved with CTQ since the project was launched. In fact, over 40 FyA students have collaborated voluntarily throughout the years, putting in practice the vision of positive social change their Youth Leadership Movement, CEFA (campamientos estudiantiles), strives towards.

The project is coordinated by FyA’s Regional Pastoral Head Maria Teresa, and operates 3 afternoons a week thanks to the hands-on street leadership of Maritza, former FyA student and CEFA leader. CTQ seeks to welcome local children whose parents work nearby, who may themselves work and/or who live in the local underserved, and dangerous, neighbourhoods of the area.

A group of 4-6 Pedagogy and Psychology students from the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS) participate in each session and provide continuous expert support to both the team and kids. Keen to contribute to a socially inclusive local “renovation” of the area, FyA is also liaising with local players to build partnerships for a sustainable offer and is currently collaborating closely with a group of artists which aims to promote local youth community life through art.

 

CTI - A brief update

CTI continues to operate 3 times a week from Alpachaca’s central park; it is now coordinated by FyA’s North Regional Office Head, Lucas, and benefits from the close collaboration of Ibarra’s local Municipality. A recent expression of this partnership has been the recent secondment of one of its employees to support in the delivery of the street sessions.

CTI is now led by two Street Educators, Cinthya who has been running the educational side of the sessions since its launch in October 2011 and Carla, who is familiar with the project as she heads up Alpachaca’s Cultural Centre and has recently joined the team replacing Fernando, our former social worker.

Both from Alpachaca, Cinthya & Carla are backed by a group of students in Psychology and Pedagogy from the local Universidad Técnica del Norte (UTN) and together, they continue to provide recreational activities to the local kids fostering awareness of their rights, generating interest in reading, along with working increasingly closely with parents and local community members, now well-known to them, to strengthen community ties.

At FyA’s request, a survey has recently been carried out by a group of UTN’s Social Department graduates across Alpachaca to find out more about local perceptions of the project as well as needs and interests, especially across the youth population- particularly exposed to the high rates of violence, deviance, drug-trafficking and prone to the increasing gang phenomena.


These findings will help FyA adjust its offer to best respond to local necessities and work collaboratively with the Municipality to carry on strengthening community ties and fostering the work it has been building in contributing to positive social change and the prevention of violence.

A dedicated CTQ & CTI page on Fe y Alegría’s website is currently underway and will be communicated as soon as “on air”!

CUENTAMELO TODO IBARRA (CTI): On your marks, Get set…

…Go : Monday 3 October, 1pm, on the volley-ball field in the Parque Central de Alpachaca, Ibarra!

Meet CTI’s operating & consulting team:
- Cinthya: our teacher, lives in Alpachaca & comes from a family of teachers, has mostly experience with smaller children and has led for a couple of years a local street initiative with kids in Alpachaca.
- Fernando: our social worker, who also works for the local authorities, lives in Alpachaca and has many years experience in street & summer projects with youth at risk in & out of Alpachaca. - Cefa students from Fe y Alegria’s local educational centre: all recently graduated & currently between studies, most of them are committed to supporting CTI and live in & around Alpachaca.
- CTI Board: composed of 5 Fe y Alegria professionals (college teachers & social workers) who will feed into the street session strategic planning (college curricular, gaps & needs) and also bring support and advice on the social needs observed by the operating team.

What will CTI be about?
- An adaptation of Cuentamelo Todo Quito (cf. below for an update!), CTI will provide a recreational space for kids & adolescents to learn about & live out their rights- starting with being children and the right to play and learn, but also learn by & through playing.
- Alpachaca is known to be a disaffected suburb of Ibarra, situated 6mns away from Fe y Alegria’s educational centre, with high levels of poverty and unemployment. Approximately 60% of Fe y Alegria’s school and college students (the centre provides for both, one in the morning the other in the afternoon) live in Alpachaca but there is little relationship with the local community which is pretty much left to its own devices, with a youth at risk of exposure to high levels of deviancy (alcohol, drug use & vending, violence & delinquency).
- A session planning is currently being drawn up by the operating team laying out what the initial themes will be, starting with the overarching theme of “The Right to a Dignified Life” valuing one’s life, looking after one's body, knowing the dangers of the street….all this to be more confident, realize one's life options and re-appropriate one’s living space…starting with your streets!

When will CTI be taking up the streets?
- Thanks to the local municipal authorities, DS&H and Fe y Alegria have been granted an authorisation to be, in the afternoons, in Alpachaca’s Parque Central: Mondays (starting 3.10.11!), Wednesdays and Fridays for a total of 14 hours.

What are CTI’s materials so far?
- 199 books: carefully selected stock chosen for CTI Mobile Library thanks to our supporting partner Better World Books LEAP grant.
- The tent, mats, Mobile Library wagon & initial didactic materials will be all be delivered on D-day.
- The Mobile School (2nd school donated by our Mobile School partner- this time for our CTI project!) has been slowed down in Ecuadorian customs last week but finally released (!) and should be in Ibarra for our Wednesday session!
- Thanks to Julio Cesar, the Head of the Alpachaca area, these will all be safely stored in the Communal House just opposite the Park.

As it all unfolds we will be keeping you posted with photos next week! We will also be welcoming the visit of Tona and Gonzo, 2 Mobile School Latin American representatives, who are here for 3 weeks to train our Ibarra team and “refresh” for a few days the Quito members!! ;0

And CUENTAMELO TODO QUITO (CTQ)? Stronger, higher…further

Over the summer, the kids elected their set of games and activities and Rosario along with the team set out to design the street planning accordingly…they did have to opt out of a few however such as “sleeping” (the Plaza San Francisco not being the ideal setting for such [non]activity) and “eating” (that would possibly turn our street session into complete havoc!). So the activities ranged from sports activities, arts & crafts but also visits to local museums such as a 2nd visit to the Presidential Palace, the Wax museum and also the City museum. Within each of these activities, the CEFA team leads, joins and supports all activities.

Since September, things have sped up as schools opened up and families have been rushing around town sourcing uniforms, books and all necessary materials that allow one to attend classes. The streets in the centre are back to human & car traffic and congestions at the various schooling hours…As you now know, the schooling system is divvied up in 3: morning, afternoon and evening school. And as most state/public school require uniforms here, Quito’s old hilly town ripples with streaming colours from 6.30am…All this preparation has meant that our attendance in Cuentamelo Todo Quito has slowed down, as children are sent home with heavy homework and parents are trying to organize their new timetables.

Since end of August, we have been preparing going back to school and what that entails, at the personal level but also in relation to one’s family and the wider social circle of friends, teachers, and its consequent general sense of belonging. Having shared the excitements and anxieties of the participants we now know well, this month will be interesting in observing how they are integrating back into the schooling system, where their difficulties may lie and how Cuentamelo Todo Quito can support them in better achieving. For example, last week, a participant came to us and informed us he had received a bad grade, we agreed that he would bring his work the next day to go over it together and see how he could do better next time.

CTQ brief update
- Since August, CTQ operates 4 times a week from la Plaza San Francisco.
- Thanks to our supporting partner Better World Book’s LEAP grant, DS&H has purchased 202 books to enhance its Mobile Library, built a much sturdier wagon to transport our now rather lush stock! And the Team has also benefited from 2 trainings by Yolanda, a Pedagogic Advisor to the Libresa Editorials, on reading techniques to discover new ways to "tell" the book.
- After 2 years of great collaboration, Santi, our Cefa member and session coordinator, has left the team to find a full-time job to sponsor his studies- we have just found out he has found that job & we wish the best of luck..
- Maritza, another Cefa leader who has been with us for over a year, has followed up closely and is now coordinating the sessions supporting Rosario along with the rest of the Cefa group, namely Cynthia, Romel, Jessica, Johanna and Angel.
- Magaly & Angelica, 2 final year students from the University Politecnica Salesiana (UPS), are collaborating with us since early September for 6 months. During that time, and beyond accompanying in the street sessions, they will be developing side-research and offering personal psychological follow-up to some of our participants.
- Fanny, Karina, Alex & Veronica, the first wave of our Pedagogy students from the UPS will be with us for a period of 2 months, starting Monday 3 bringing their technical expertise and skills to support Rosario.
- Monica, our social worker, is currently in talks with our health partner, the UMSC (with whom we are carrying out a new set of medical checks for our participants), to coordinate how 2 medical students from the Universidad Catolica can take part in CTQ, animating specific sessions and carrying out an individual follow-up on the treatments prescribed in those checks.

We look forward to an exciting beginning of school year with a strong dedicated team, starting with Tona & Gonzo, our Mobile School partner representatives, who arrived last night and will be with us in Quito for a few days for that long-awaited “refresher” (the last one was with their first donation, in March 2010)!

Snaps to follow…so stay tuned...

As the sunny summer unfolds...

... Cuéntamelo Todo Quito (CTQ) will be focusing primarily on fun and games. After consulting with our participating kids over their preferred activities last week, the team met up this week to start drawing up this summer’s activities. Top of the list: football & basketball, painting and visits to local museums. As the holidays kick in and the numbers will be inflating, Cuéntamelo Todo Quito will continue to offer a space for kids to come relax, play and learn.

CTQ Update
Numbers, logs & content
• Since June 2009, Cuéntamelo Todo Quito has hosted 233 sessions welcoming over 7000 participants.
• Over 400 books have been lent and 450 short Ecuadorian tales distributed.
• A new wave of health checks is being coordinated with our partner, la Unidad Medica de Salud Centro (UMSC).
• Monica, our Social Worker, is currently renewing contacts with all our local partner social services to define new areas of collaboration for September 2011.
• From August onwards, CTQ will be present an extra day on the Plaza San Francisco bringing our presence up to 4 days weekly, namely: Monday (2.30-5pm), Tuesday (10am-1pm), Wednesday (2.30-5pm), and Thursday (10am-1pm).
• Since February, we have focused on themes and values that we have noted needed further developing with our children, namely health & hygiene (especially through values such as respect of the self and others), as well as key concepts like citizenship and cultural identity. One of the activities linked to this was a visit to the Preseidential Palace, which lies two blocks away from the Plaza San Francisco.

Team
• Since February 2011, Rosario has joined our team and is leading our street sessions: she is trained psychologist and is also specialised in Education with Children and Youth at risk. She has worked in a number of Ecuadorian NGOs tackling issues linked to children at risk, such as Aldeas Infantiles SOS Ecuador, Tierra Nueva, Chicos de la Calle.
• Our CEFA group is currently led by Santiago who has been with us since the beginning of the project; he graduated from FyA last September and has since been working part-time for DS&H whilst studying at University.
• The CEFA group is composed of a dynamic bunch of youngsters (Cintia, Johis, Johanna, Romel, Darwin, Martin, Maritza, Andres, Geovanna & Jessica) who at the moment are on holidays and have offered to share the maximum of their free time with the kids.
• Since May 2011, CTQ has been welcoming 2nd year students in Pedagogy from the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS), with whom DS&H has signed an institutional partnership. As part of their University training, 6 students participated weekly in our sessions and supported Rosario and the CEFA group in delivering adapted activities.
• Over the month of July, we received the visit of Florence & Edouard, 2 volunteers from St Louis de Gonzagues college in Paris, it was a delight to have them especially as they blended so naturally with the team and project...We will miss them!
• The CTQ team has benefited since the beginning of the year from the following trainings:
* Creative and Musical workshops led by Bernarda, head of Fe y Alegria’s Choir, who led a few of our street sessions on “The right to be creative”;
* Workshops on sexuality and how to “manage” that topic with children from the street, led by our partner, the UMSC’s social workers, who also participated in a number of our street sessions on the following issues: nutrition, health, hygiene, etc.

DS&H News in Brief
• We are currently working with our partner, Fe y Alegría, on the launch of Cuéntamelo Todo in Ibarra (soon to be known as Cuéntamelo Todo Ibarra – CTI), north of the country, scheduled early October 2011 (more details to come on our website).
• For this project, our current partner Mobile School has donated us a new school; this will be twinned with a training of the Ibarra team (and a refresher for the CTQ team) in October.
• We are also currently enhancing our current Mobile Library/Bank in Quito and working at setting up one for Ibarra, a number of trainings for the Quito and Ibarra teams on reading techniques with a local Ecuadorian author and publishing company are also being scheduled for August & October.
• Despite still energetically looking for more funds, we have recently received funding from the Air France Foundation (2nd consecutive year), Better World Books through their LEAP program and the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC)
• If you want to support us, please click here to find out how...;0

2011: Cuéntamelo Todo sigue en marcha...

Cuéntamelo Todo taking up the streets...

Since January, our 2 Fe y Alegría graduates, Santi & Henry have been leading on the execution of our sessions with the support of their ex-schoolmates…to be true, this has actually been happening since November when we “soft-launched” our new street session plan.
Since then and through a series of activities & dynamics using our main didactic materials (that is the Mobile School & mobile library), we have been focusing with our kids on a single value for a month, with an underlying right running for a week and breaking down 3 related themes in our weekly sessions. The reason behind this was that as we have grown organically, passing from 1 day in the street to 3, it simply made sense to link up our rights-based approach day to the rest so as to make our approach more consistent and leverage the space we had with the kids to reinforce these, by “living them out” in each session!
Hence, since November we have been revisiting key values such as identity, equality, solidarity, responsibility, honesty, with for example the right to solidarity, looking at how leadership and engagement can ensure that we care for ourselves, the ones we love and our environment. Activities have varied greatly as you will see in the pics and have included for example reviving paper muppets that the kids had created in a December session under the value of equality, and the right to be different, with the theme being specifically, the right to be different in our tastes. The CEFA team, after selecting specific characters with the kids, carried out a play on a child who had not done his homework. The theme here was, with rights come responsibilities, and notably, the responsibility we have to ourselves to ensure we give ourselves the tools to succeed & fulfil our rights.
Overarching and running through all our activities, are elements of trust, respect and team spirit that we seek to reinforce with the kids, where games and relaxation are also central to a child's rights: for one to be well & complete as a person and have the ability to succeed in his/her undertakings, one needs to be rested, have fun but most importantly one requires the space to Be a child. We have also been carrying out numerous games enhancing trust through covering eyes and as a group or in pairs, allowing yourself, and the other, to guide you. So in the value of honesty, we explored the right to solidarity and the importance of leadership through literally "leading" the other...the other being someone you may never have seen in your life, or actually someone you know and perhaps don't particularly trust…;0

The attendance since the New Year has been pretty sporadic and eclectic. The weather has also been playing up a couple of its wintery tricks but we have managed to stay put. This however does not exclude the fact that many our kids parents are ambulant street sellers or their vending posts are located in the streets, so when the skies get threatening, they don’t hesitate to head home and sweep their kids along.

With the new schooling year, many have had more homework and exams and Cuéntamelo Todo has become a condition for many: “if the homework (and grades for that matter) are properly carried out, then they are allowed to join”! There have actually been a few recent instances where negotiations with parents have occurred to ensure that the kids can come to learn & relax with us through play to be more prepared for study!!

Honestidad, Derecho a Ser Solidario, “Compromiso - liderazgo para ayudar a mejorar una realidad”

CUENTAMELO TODO IN BRIEF

Number Crunching
143 Cuéntamelo Todo street sessions have been carried out since June 2009
5107 participants have visited our sessions, breaking down to 2091 children
3380 didactic boards have been posted on the Mobile School since March 2010 ranging from maths to reading, motricity and creativity games
348 books have been lent to our kids since the mobile library launch in October 2009
65 books have been lost or damaged since then …
Over 1850 small cuentitos (tales) and books have been donated to DS&H since June 2009

January Update
-The Cuéntamelo Todo team has carried out 3 creativity workshops with Bernarda, a classicallly-trained singer, who also set up Fe y Alegría’s childrens' choirs and led a few street sessions with our kids last year on the same theme en canto!

- 2 book donations were made this month, one from a wonderful man in a local Antiques book shop and the other from our neighbours!
- We completed our annual report for the Mobile School, soon to be celebrating our 1st anniversary as we were donated the school in March 2010! The report enabled us to carry out a general team evaluation meeting and also interview some of our kids on their perceptions of Cuéntamelo Todo … all very interesting & worthy insights!

Honestidad, Ser integro, “Estar en acuerdo con lo que uno piensa, y su entorno” : escucha de sonidos

February Update
- Since the beginning of the week, Rosario has joined the Cuéntamelo Todo team, beyond leading our street sessions and team, she will be planning these. She is a professional teacher with many years of experience with children at risk and also has a background in psychology!
- A series of weekly workshops for parents have been organized with the support of the UMSC, one of our key medical partners (with which we have carried out the medical & dental checks), these will cover themes suggested by the parents themselves, such as: nutrition, sexual diseases, legal advice, and intra-familiar violence.
- A 2-year contract has been resigned with the UMSC, and dental & medical checks will be reinitiated in the coming weeks with those who require follow-up as well as with our newcomers.
- With our partner Fe y Alegría, we are initiating background research and drawing up a baseline for the replication of Cuéntamelo Todo in Ibarra in the coming months- all very exciting!

Respeto, Derecho a opinar, “Escuchar, preguntar e investigar para hacerse una opinión”:

elaboración de un collage de lo que nos llamo la atención en el periódico

Felices fiestas

¡El Equipo de DS&H les desea un hermoso feriado y un próspero año nuevo!

Nos sacamos el sombrero frente a todos los que luchan para un mundo mejor. Esperamos con mucho ánimo conectarnos en el 2011 por Cuéntamelo Todo siempre con más gente dedicada, creativa y colaboradora como son nuestros socios actuales.

¡Les esperamos sobre nuestro blog en el nuevo año para contarles más sobre nuestros planes y actividades en el 2011 con nuestros niños y más allá todavia!

The DS&H Team wishes you a wonderful festive season and a very prosperous New Year!

We raise our hats to all those working towards a better and more just society and look forward over 2011 to connecting through Cuéntamelo Todo with more dedicated, creative and collaborative people, like our current partners.

We hope to meet you back here on our blog in the New Year where we will be telling you more about our new exciting 2011 plans and activities with our kids and beyond!

Creative therapy...

Over the past month or so, we have been busy on various fronts…greeting our kids back, identifying “the new & the old” and their needs, observing how- and that can be pretty breathtaking- some have grown into young ladies, little tough boys or simply, incredibly hugging and affectionate characters. Most importantly, we have been working on keeping Cuentamelo Todo’s space “open” for the kids to elect what it is they feel like doing and get a better idea of what it is we should be developing with them over the next couple of months.

During this “observation” period, it has been great to see how many of them, through the various games we have at hand, are now pals and meet up on the Plaza specifically to pick up where they last left these…On the menu at Cuentamelo Todo: the usual footy, the long & short sogas (surprisingly kids never seem to lose interest!!), the very popular elastico (seems to transcend all age groups and sexes!), the rayuela, etc. On the Mobile School, the Juego de la Oca, orientation games and Quien Es are all popular team games that some kids get incredibly shirty about if they are not posted for a while… Others, well they just storm under the tent and request their piece of paper, crayons, a book to be read, and the issue is over.

A recent innovation on the Mobile School has been a growing interest in using it as a drawing board which is incredibly more ecological than paper…Whilst some are coming up with very artistic drawings such as “Looking after the world”, coined by a little girl after she had drawn the mapa mundi and a big hand holding it; others are using it to pass on messages- as with the fish figure that emerged from one the laminated games- a group of siblings took to describing what the fish may be saying: as you hopefully might be able to see, a pretty thought for the day! Meanwhile, we also discovered we had an artist amongst our team; as soon as our back is turned, Santi is busy beavering away at drawing graffiti, which created quite a stir yesterday amongst some of the kids who also wanted to write their names stylishly but couldn’t quite figure out the letters- obviously an activity to be added to our planning sessions! ;0

On a slightly more serious front, we have also been working with the kids at developing team spirit through manual activities and have put a fair amount of emphasis, in this new schooling year, on the importance of recognizing and addressing the other with respect. Thanks to our wonderful trio, Yvonne, Santi & Henry, we have been developing communication and motricity skills through a series of games where the kids had to call on each other, follow each other around and then identify themselves by their names… A challenging exercise as most call each other, as well as the team, by the very popular “oye” … which could translate as “hey you” (over there)…;0

This month, we also welcomed Leonor Bravo, despite the rainy day, a local writer who came to tell the story “La Granja de las Hormigas”, which counted the story of 2 cousins from distinct areas of Ecuador and the various knowledge of their country they respectively had. Beyond values of tolerance and sharing, the tale spoke of insects & animals as well as respect for nature, which we then brought to the artistic field by recreating aspects of the cuento through group drawings of images of animals & insects.

A wonderful purchase we recently made was a record player which has come in very handy in a few sessions where music was at the heart of our activities. Over the past few weeks, Yvonne, a fervent believer in musical therapy, has exposed the kids, through movement and play, to some great melodies such as La Sinfonia Inconclusa del Mar by Piero, or Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. Bernarda, from the Coro de Fe y Alegria, also made it for a visit despite her terrible cold and injured knee and thanks to our new technological aquisition, the kids learned to identify what instruments made which sounds…Through these various musical activities, we are discovering the kids love to play & listen to music as well as respond increasingly well with their bodies!

Last week we also had the incongruous visit of local firemen who had been given authorization by the local authorities to set up tent at close vicinity on the Plaza … It made complete sense to = join forces and our kids were the first to sit down in the middle of the Plaza and call for a rather busy audience! As you can see, a large group concentrated to watch and laugh with the firemen dressed up as all sorts as they sensitized children and their families on how to take care with fire and, most importantly, on how to prevent it.

Brief monthly update:
1."The Mobile School injury": we discovered one day with the kids it lost one of its metal boards, which caused great distress amongst them as that meant we would not be able to take it out …we thankfully managed to repair it swiftly!
2."The tormenting rainy season": despite having access to the Convent, the dark clouds are back & looming over us most afternoons now which means our usual crowd may be less present as their parents cannot sell off the streets…
3. "Cuentamelo Todo’s session planning in progress": with Henry and Santi, and the support of our teacher specialists, we will shortly be unraveling this planning for the next couple of months, where we will be challenging our kids with some more key life values and expecting them to challenge us back!
4. "Reaching out for teachers and partners": we are proceeding with our teacher search for the project and working on developing new partnerships to welcome all types of specialists over our sessions, growing & strengthening our network!
5. “Cuentamelo Todo in numbers”: Cuentamelo Todo has come into contact with over 4259 participants since we started in June 2009, which breaks down to just over 1735 different kids, with an average attendance per session of 32 for a total 136 sessions. Since October 2009, more than 310 books have also been loaned...

... el año lectivo regresó ....

Ya se acabaron las vacaciones y empezó el nuevo año lectivo! Y como ustedes bien lo saben algunos de los que nos acompañan durante las vacaciones son de otras zonas de la ciudad o del país, otros ya dejaron sus trabajos temporales que les hacían cruzarse por la plaza varias veces al día y compartir momentos robados con nosotros. La verdad es que durante las vacaciones no hay espacio ni para una mosca sobre los paneles de la Escuela móvil, aunque las primeras semanas de reinicios de clases siempre son mucho más tranquilas. Siempre tenemos unos días o unas semanas de transición para que nuestros antiguos compañeros regresen poco a poco, por lo general el tiempo de reorganizarse con los deberes.

Entonces para una transición agridulce, decidimos abordar nuevamente el derecho a la educación pero esta vez bajo la modalidad de una función de teatro, para seguir la siguiente semana con unos ¨origamistas¨ comprometidos a abordar el derecho a regalar, y finalmente la UMSC regresó para una pequeña recapitulación de algunos derechos visto durante el año anterior.

La función de teatro propuesta por los cefistas, encabezados por Henry y Santi, fue bien simpática. Mezcla de interpretaciones de niños temiendo el regreso a clases con compañeros entusiastas tratando de convencerles de lo lindo de poder estudiar y prometerles solidaridad a lo largo del año. La propuesta, para la semana que siguió, de construir figuras chéveres para luego regalarlas marco el orgullo de muchos pero se quedó en la mitad. La verdad es que gracias a Pluma y su compadre, cada uno hizo mas de 10 figuras con solo papel y el simple uso de sus dedos (o la verdad en el caso de los mas chiquitos con dedos prestados de nuestros queridos cefistas…) Empezando con una cajita para asegurarse de tener un lugar para guardar todas estas maravillas por ser creadas…surgieron animales divertidos, personajes curiosos, y para los más serios aviones y barcos. Sin embargo el momento que hubiéramos pensado ser el de regalar estas realizaciones, los niños se pararon en grupos, armando historias con los animalitos de papel, competiendo con sus aviones lanzándoles desde une línea imaginaria, ó también soplando sobre sus barcos para empujarlos en el balde que se usa para limpiar la escuela móvil. En resumen un momento bien alhaja pero que de ninguna manera cumplió con lo propuesto para el dia (-;

Finalmente la UMSC nos vino a acolitar en este inicio de año, y como de costumbre habían llevado a sus dos muñequitos estrellas que suelen traer para conversar con nuestros muchachos de sus derechos. En un comité bastante restringido, se hizo una suerte de retroalimentación informaldel derecho a la identidad, a la familia o a la salud,añadiendo también el derecho a ser protegido, y terminando con el derecho a recibir cariño con los muñecos que invitaban a los guaguas a darles un abrazo! También durante estas semanas los ¨cuentamelotodistas¨ aprovecharon como siempre para hacer sus juegos preferidos en la escuela móvil y probar nuevas láminas de matemática, motricidad, lectura, entre otras.

Confirmado, el año lectivo empezó bien por el lado de la plaza San Francisco!

Desde la Plaza in brief...

After a couple of weeks of silence, we are back with a brief little taster of what we have been up to on the Plaza:

Mid-July, the Radio Publica del Ecuador came to record one of our sessions- the kids loved it, between the cables, mics, and interviewers…all was exciting novelty and a couple even got to speak up & out, including some mothers! That day, Bernarda from FyA’ s Choir was back to accompany the kids in expressing their creativity through their voice and bodies…creating an interesting array of sounds for the recording. For more on that, check out the show.

For a couple of sessions, we have played a series of games as the weather was pretty clear and sunny and the kids happy to let loose…especially as it is the summer holidays here, no one really wants to sit down and be too serious. We have also had a couple of surprise visits from potential future partners, such as Yvonne, a marvelous school teacher, who during her holiday break has taken to our kids, after passing by randomly a few months ago, and has been returning consistently. So, amongst the fun & games, we have been inviting the kids to come and relax under the tent to listen, or read with her, a story. We also had Pluma’s visit, an Origami artist from the Colectivo Caracolito de Papel Violeta, who came to “check out” our project to see how we could collaborate further...we were successful in baiting him in, so hopefully mid September you will see him return with his crew to lead one of our sessions, on how to make many figures from one same A4 sheet of paper...

The week running up to early August was preparing the celebratiions for Quito´s 200th anniversary of independence, this meant festivities were high, and the Plaza being one of the largest in the old town, was taken up for pretty much an entire week with stages, ramps, and chairs, making it impossible for us to set up. Despite some of the show shiners advising us where to position ourselves, we decided against it as the kids at the moment love ball games, running around, and it was potentially hazardous for all…

Learning about something can also be fun and take place in multiple ways as the crew from the YAKU museum, revealed to us. As it happens, part of their revised strategy is to reach out to new audiences and take their learning out of the museum walls…our contact-making was thus timely! ;0 So Fernanda, Paulina and Bernarda came to check out what it was the kids really knew about water (¨yaku¨ means “water” in quichua), where it can be found, what it evokes, what it does to us, etc. After a series of warm-up games that got the imaginations running, the kids were invited to represent “yaku” with plastilina & cardboard; as you will notice, some really harmonious things came out. After that, the girls turned into muppets, and later clowns, tackling water as key to our body’s health mechanism, and how it is important to look after it. So, “the secret is, if you are not sure of the water: make sure you boil it” the muppets informed the kids, explaining what that meant of course. In the clown session, the kids got really involved as he was trying to steal the bad water and hand it out to them…all were shouting out “don’t drink, don’t drink”, even the little ones, were seeking refuge from the dirty water! The audience was also made aware that drinking the water from the fountain on the Plaza was not a good idea…something we invited the Yaku crew to stress, as we find many hanging around there, supposedly playing! ;0 After all that fun and reflection, Bernarda, Fernanda and Paulina had lugged from the museum a huge tin container in which we had placed soapy water so with metal loops we were able to make some very large bubbles…clearly, even the tough ones, were caught up in being children…a really thrilling sight. There is a strong possibility the Yaku team will be back to visit us in the new school term as we pretty much had a ball!

This week, Henry and Santi, our leading coordinators who by the way have graduated with flying colours and starting university in September remaining involved with us, led a session. They looked at the right to recreation, without labeling it that way. The kids were divvied up in groups and accompanied by one of our Cefistas, they set off to browse the Plaza and select a couple of people to later mime out their activities to the rest of the kids. Once the groups had convened, deliberated on whom they would be representing and how, they launched into peforming. The audience was then invited, in silence (challenging!), to write down their answers. Henri & Santi then went around electing the winning group- as it turned out, all were pretty succesful! The Cefistas then performed a scene where a group a young people met an old man with 3 different outcomes. When asked which the children preferred, they chorused they loved all three so then Yvonne (who was back!) kicked in to reflect with them what each scene was about, and which perhaps, was most appropriate… that of the old man getting mugged was perhaps not ideal! ;0

This month, we also sat down with the team to reflect on a couple of the Mobile School´s boards and what sort of dynamics we could do with & around them. This was an interesting snapshot into the unrevealed creativity of some and showed that it was perhaps a useful exercise to carry out regularly as many of the creativity boards are pretty challenging to animate…and one cannot really do the same activity with 1 kid as with with 10! A new meeting is thus scheduled for mid September. ..

This week we have also wished a relaxing happy end of holidays to our kids as we will be closed for 2 weeks until early September when they will be starting with school again…Should you want, during that time, to find out more about us, check out our new (& very humble!;0) website: http://www.dsh.org.ec/ All comments/suggestions are more than welcome!