La Libertad:
The Report of Daniel and Diane
Spring, 2012
We have provided a report of our months stay volunteering in La Libertad;
it has been separated into sections:
Medical
Report:
After living with the residents of La Libertad for one month and after visiting
and treating approximately 80 people, I can say that the situation in terms of
health care is very serious. I will
explain why I have come to this conclusion:
1.
Water
La Libertad does not have access to
clean water. The residents keep rainwater in large containers which is
suitable but only within the first instance, it falls. Over time the water is
infected by insects and different animals e.g. leaving eggs and feces which
are harmful. In the dry season, we found
out that many of the residents resort to drinking the river water which is
contaminated for different reasons.
There is a small waterfall located
within the jungle with pure water however many do not have the option to access
it due to the distance and challenge of getting it.
It’s obvious that the lack of clean
water causes illness (diarrhea), parasites, and some skin disorders. The only family we know who use chlorine to
treat the water is Gustavo and his family.
2. Visits and
Treatments
Visits and checks were given to 80 residents of La Libertad. Many
received consecutive care and treatments due to the gravity of the situation. Approximately
50 children and 20 adults were treated (the list is available on request). The
common denominators were:
·
Stomach infections
·
Fever
·
Diarrhea
·
Skin infections
Many children needed consecutive treatment due to the lack of knowledge of
how to reduce sickness from the parents. An example of this was that some
exposed sick babies and children to hours of sunlight and heat when they had had
a severe temperature or were not hydrating them frequently. This advice was
given but on numerous occasions was not followed through. We made sure that the
advice was understood by asking the parents what advice we had given in order
to make sure it was not a question of miscommunication.
Example cases
Vicente XXXXXXXX, 4 months old:
He had a fever (42 degrees at highest), severe diarrhea, and respiratory
problems. He was severely ill for four days due to the causes mentioned above
and hygiene etc.
On the fifth day of illness, this coincided with a social worker visiting
the children in lessons on nutrition, Coincidently this was the day Vicente was
seriously ill, I advised the social worker to visit Vicente and it was decided
to transfer him to San Rafael hospital in Leticia. Vicente recovered in the hospital for seven days before returning.
Bebeto XXXXXX, 12 years old
Bebeto had wounds and abscesses. One abscess, in particular, was swollen
(on his leg) and it was very infected, this needed repeated draining. This was
a severely painful process and it needed several days of treatment. This was
not the first treatment that had occurred for Bebeto (had it completed in the
past in the hospital). Also, Bebeto lived
with his elderly grandparents and his younger brother (orphans). Grandfather had been recently diagnosed with
tuberculosis and they were living and sleeping within in the same room-
Tuberculosis is incredibly infectious through air particles.
Grandmother had a broken shoulder bone from 3 weeks prior and this was
not treated. She had a large inflammation on her bone and was in pain. Bebeto and grandmother were both treated and
cared for. Bebeto’s infection was successfully reduced from the draining and
disinfected, he was given painkillers and antibiotic cream. Grandmother was
also given painkillers. Grandfather did have treatment from the hospital
(antibiotics) and we strongly advised them not to share space and cover his mouth
when possible, a severe case.
Olga XXXXX, 65 yrs old
Olga was suspected of having Alzheimer’s. She had an accident and fell
and split her lip as well breaking some teeth. The family requested that I
provide stitches to the wound instantly. I refused due to the lack of
anesthetic as the process would have been incredibly painful and because of the
fragility of the woman. I advised her
husband and daughters to take her to the hospital-this was possible as the
Curaca was already traveling to Leticia that evening. However, this didn’t occur. I gave painkillers and antibiotics to her.
Haco XXXX, 3 yrs old
One day before we left La Libertad we saw Haco, he had several infected
wounds as well as a severe level of filthiness (we have photos showing his wounds). We cleaned and disinfected the wounds and
treated them with antibiotic creams. Due to the timing, we are unaware if the
treatment was effective and it’s apparent this needs continuous care. The
Curaca was informed about Haco.
Medicines
There is an extreme lack of medicines and
treatments. The families I visited
didn’t have sufficient means of treating basic conditions with treatments such
as painkillers, antibiotics, inhalers, etc.
Besides this, the lack of knowledge of how to use such medicines was
scarce when having to deal with an illness.
During the first week, we detected that the culture and knowledge about natural medicines
were extremely poor (we assumed that there would be more use of these). Just in rare exception did we find some people
initially treating illnesses with natural medicines but then were not continued? We could say the majority of the families
have lost their culture of medicinal treatments with the time. Only the
families of the Shamans (and even those on not on many occasions) used some
small measures of natural medicines.
We
believe and respect the usage of these natural medicines based on trees, plants, and vines and the effectiveness of these in a lot of cases. At first, we tried
to encourage classes from the Shamans to share their knowledge of these plants
with the rest of the community. This way to reinforce and share this knowledge,
but because of the lack of interest and initiative from both parts (lack of
time for us to focus on this), it was not possible to continue with this
objective. We think that focusing on natural medicines as basic treatments
of symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, skin conditions, and different conditions.
This is based on the evidence of learning about existing remedies during our
stay.
e.g.
Mucura and Lancatilla: good treatment to
reduce fever
Murure:
to heal wounds
Renacho: Pain reliever
There is a large natural Pharmacy available from
the surrounding of this area, in our opinion they are not being taken advantage
of.
On the other hand, we knew some families who
travel to Zaragoza where a woman healer/Shaman lives and they receive treatment
for some conditions, the result of this and is a contradiction there are already
existing shamans and medicines within La Libertad.
Hygiene
The lack of hygiene, it was one of the main
causes of the majority of conditions I witnessed particularly in the illnesses
of the children. Small children including babies were incredibly filthy (body
and clothes), the awareness of hygiene and the repercussions of the lack of it
was practically zero within the majority of families treated. When we advised that this habit needed to be
changed and a need to clean their children better, we found the families
rejected this notion or in some cases, their reaction was indifference to the
matter. The only moment when the children wear clean clothes is within the school because this is obligatory. This however was not enough as the children spent
the majority of the time out of school. The fact of the dirtiness within cases is
not banal…. it’s important to understand that this community eats with their
hands from a very early age. It’s necessary to within the dirtiness resides
bacteria and microbes and parasites, all extremely harmful for their health.
Practically none of the families clean their
hands before and after eating, only some families were witnessed doing this.
5.
Parasites/Purgatives:
Practically all of the children, many adolescents, and some of the adults had parasites. These are due to the contaminated water
supply and lack of hygiene.
The community is aware of the existence of parasites;
in a lot of cases, it was more than evident within the swollen stomachs. At the
same time, this issue was not confronted by the residents and many showed
indifference to the problem.
Secondary effects of parasites:
We understand that this treatment can sometimes be too expensive for a lot of families (there are however some natural
medicines to treat this). In the second week of our stay, the community received
a donation of remedies for this from a tourist cruise liner.
After receiving this donation, we believed it
would not be enough to treat the entire community. But there is nothing farther
from the truth. The community was
informed about the purgatives by me and through the curaca (the curaca
requested that I give the dosages, due to needing to understand the correct
measures of the medicine, etc). During
the first days of giving the purgatives, practically none of the families came to the scheduled place and time to receive them. Throughout these first few days to
initiate the treatment we repeated to the families that we had the purgatives
(completely free) however the interest was scarce (a minority showed interest).
These families brought their children to the required three-day treatment. The rest however required strong
encouragement.
We tried to change the way of administration due
to the lack of takers in a way that was easier and collective. This is
personally due to the effort of chasing and giving the treatments. Conceding with the school semester and a
general teacher-parent meeting we spoke with the teachers in order to organize
the administration of the purgatives during three days of school (it was
essential that those taking the purgatives was taken 3 days consecutively). The advantage of having support from the
school routine was perfect in order to administer correctly and concisely. The
meeting also gave us the opportunity to explain to the families as well as gain
the consent of the families for their children. During the meeting the families
showed more interest, however unfortunately on the last week of our stay the school
closed (teachers meeting held in Leticia at last minute) and the plan was
unable to go ahead. Instead, we advised all families that we would hold the administration
at the specific time near the school. This, however, was unsuccessful many didn't attend that said they would, and for some that did they did not attend for
the three days consecutively which they were aware of the need to do. It was
necessary to complete house visits at this point.
Finally, at the end of our stay, we gave the
donation box of medicines to the health volunteer with explanations and written
explanations on how to administer, personally, however, we do not have a great
deal of confidence that the treatments will be successful or be taken correctly
e.g., consecutively.
5) Health
Representative and health care Resources
La Libertad has two health care promoters
/Volunteers. In our point of view, these volunteers are inoperative, they are
Wagner and Emma. In theory, they should take care of the people/within their
capability.
The problem is their capacity is influenced by
two basic factors:
1) The lack of time to do this effectively due to
their own obligations such as fishing, agriculture, and childcare.
2) Their lack of knowledge on health care, eg
diagnosis and treatment of illnesses.
They are volunteers and haven’t received enough
training /education to have this responsibility. Wagner is the only one who has
received some minimal training; however, from my point of view, this is insufficient. Wagner has a first aid kit which contains:
a)
A stethoscope – he didn’t know how to use
b)
A neck brace-didn’t know how or when to use it correctly
c)
A thermometer- he didn’t understand what was normal or
high temperature and was unsure how to use it.
d)
The kit also contained things such as an IV Drip-this
is impossible to teach and in most cases should only be used in the hospital.
On numerous occasions, I offered Wagner the
opportunity to learn how to use the equipment
and usually had the same response ‘Yes’
but then excuses were made e.g. not having the time and or not showing
particular interest when I visited him. His lack of initiative and interest
continued throughout the month until the first aid class.
Emma is the second health care promoter of La Libertad. It’s important to
say she demonstrated more interest and motivation. She is the promoter who
showed motivation and I focused on teaching her e.g. Purgatives and their uses
and how to use a thermometer. Without
being Critical to her knowledge of health was also quite minimal. It’s evident
however that her motivation was clear e.g. taking care of her child throughout
studying the basics I was teaching. It
would be effective if the healthcare promoters collaborated on their knowledge
in the future.
Our visit in Leticia. In our stay in Leticia during the 2nd week, we visited the healthcare organization in charge of the Indigenes villages of
the Amazons. The health minister informed us that ten days prior to our stay
the Village had been visited by a healthcare team. She was astounded about our
finding s and suggested the team had not been aware of or reported issues to her. This was surprising due to the number of sick
children. In my personal opinion, her attitude was defensive; we witnessed some
visits during our stay and know that they were brief and not extensive to La
Libertad which may suggest they did not find the extremes that we had.
In a conversation with a visiting social worker we were informed that
the residents of La Libertad receive healthcare assistance in two ways, some
receive from a private company called Capricorn and some from the public health
care system. Speaking to the residents it’s
unclear to what extent they are covered as they are unsure about this and it
differed from family to family. Due to
this confusion, many of the residents reject the option of traveling to
Leticia when sick, it’s also due to the cost of travel to Leticia (it’s been
suggested however they are given money for travel expenses in emergencies and
severe cases should have access use the
community boat).
7) Classes
Water and
Hygiene:
2 classes for adults and 4
classes to children of different ages were given. Firstly, a class was given
about the importance of water and methods to purify it. The information was
obtained from a Spanish Organization that provided a system to an Indigenous
village in La Libertad “Proyecto Araucaria/Agencia Española de cooperación
Internacional para el desarrollo –(internet information given to Ben). This information
has also been left along with the English class info in the volunteer bag.
The class was given to 15 adults; the lesson was publicized daily with
some interest particularly in the assemblies. Times and location were informed
by myself and the Curaca. On the day of
the initial class, only two residents attended (Gustavo and Rosalba). It was
necessary to re-inform by walking from door to door and state the class was
about to start.
Prior to the initial class, I provided similar but lower-level
information classes to children (focused on aspects of hygiene they can
incorporate in their daily routine). The teachers were supportive in enabling
me the time to provide these classes during school. It’s evident that the
children were more receptive than the adults. A positive step as they are the
next generation of La Libertad.
First Aid:
Finally, I gave first aid classes: CPR techniques
for adults and children, mouth to mouth resuscitation as well how to deal with
bleeding wounds, etc. I assisted around
an average of twenty people including the health care promoters which were
incredibly positive. I insisted that
Wagner attended and learn the basics and he showed interest within the class.
The interest in the class was limited by the villagers and their
participation too. 20 people from 150
adults are limited and unfortunately due to checking and treating many patients
I did not have the opportunity to give more classes and highlight the importance
of them.
The Curaca did advise the members of the village
to attend these classes however he himself never attended and as the representative of the village, he did not set an example.
8. Incident
with Social Worker (Familiars En Accion)
The second week whilst Diane was recovering from illness I went to get information about the resources available to the
community of La Libertad e.g. Social benefits.
Apparently, each family had a subsidy which was
available if the families accomplish several requisites e.g. be conscious and
provide nutritional meals to their children. In my visit to the main social
worker of the Amazon villages we spoke about some of the issues within La
Libertad and the lack of attendance in wanting support and education in health
matters. The social workers gave me the
power (a piece of paper stating my role) to obligate the members of La Libertad
to attend the classes. We were given a
list of names that were known by ´Familiars en Accion` and they needed to
attend these classes. At the first
moment I thought this was a good idea however before returning to La Libertad I
realized that this was not the correct way to manage the situation in my
voluntary role and so I did not use the paper to obligate any attendance this
would have been detrimental and I did not want to affect the benefits they
receive from the association. It would be more effective to have voluntary
attendance and meet much more effective education.
On return to La Libertad, I went on my daily health
check visits and was surprised by the lack of requirements of help, everyone
suggested they were healthy. Three days prior to this the situation had been
very different. We found out the Social worker had called the Curaca to request
his support but had obviously scared him. He wrongly informed the residents of
La Libertad that someone (me) had suggested there were problems of malnutrition
of children- This was not true, as malnutrition was never an issue. The situation changed when I was able to
explain my intentions (making sure they had to support) to the residents and state
they had been wrongly informed by the Curaca.
Two days prior to me leaving La Libertad, the
social worker contacted the Curaca in order to find out about the report; this
once again changed the situation. I had a meeting with the Curaca for one hour
explaining how on my return to Leticia I would inform the social worker I had
not obligated families to attend classes etc. The Curaca was unfortunately not
open to hearing me and was constantly worried about losing benefit money. I
gave my opinion on the situation of the village in terms of health highlighting
such gravities as the cases mentioned above. He was not interested in this.
The morning of our departure he held an assembly
to inform the residents about this issue ignoring the conversation we had had
the previous day. This obviously caused the residents some worries as he
continued to suggest I would inform the social worker of specific families and
issues. I defended my position once again but faced hostility from some of the
mothers, I continued to repeat that I was only in a helping role. This issue
was caused by the attitude of the Curaca and it’s evident that he preferred to
lay blame on me when it’s him who was failing in his role to help the village.
Once in Leticia, we spoke to the Social worker who
was alarmed that Curaca had blown the situation out of proportion and stated
she had never mentioned malnutrition as a factor in the chat. She stated that
La Libertad was one of the most challenging villages; she added that neighboring
villages prospered far better due to the leadership and care of its Curaca.
We want to
explain this issue in order to support future volunteers in management with the
Curaca.
Recommendations
In health care, the recommendation we are giving is our long terms goals. In our opinion, La Libertad has lost its direction and is
trapped between some of the old traditions and the western traditions. The long-term goals could be achieved by
prolonged support e.g., long-term volunteers.
The situation in La Libertad is the same that is faced by many
impoverished communities throughout the world. These include poor physical and
mental health conditions and issues such as alcoholism.
These recommendations of priority are from
highest to lowest:
a)
Drinkable water:
clean water is essential for the health of the residents to avoid some
of the basic conditions/illness, they had.
This
could be faced by supplying water via the waterfall e.g. by tube and suction
system.
Another option is the construction of a large tanker (Zaragoza a neighboring
village has this) through gravity means it would supply clean water. This water
could be controlled through the maintenance of the residents.
This issue needs to be addressed by professionals and experts on this matter.
In
our time in Leticia we addressed the water company which stated LA Libertad
would be provided with a clean water system within the next year however we are
unsure and unconfident on when this will actually occur.
We
suggest that the next volunteers who are focusing on the water solutions
contact the local water company based in Leticia.
We
advised that the residents boiled their water to reduce contamination however
this only a short-term step.
b)
Healthcare: A small healthcare clinic or space should
be provided within the community. To be
able to check and treat patients within a clean and hygienic environment. This
should contain basic healthcare equipment and supplies such as bandages etc. At
this moment a healthcare area does not
exist. During my checks, it was
necessary to check the patients in very unclean conditions such as home and on
floors, etc.
c)
More healthcare volunteers need to be recruited;
this is essential in order to continue the teaching of the healthcare promoters
Wagner and Emma and overall continue to create a new understanding of health
care. It’s about helping them to help
themselves.
d)
Encourage Emma and Wagner within their roles; we think
it would be suitable for them to have some incentive for this which would need
to be managed by the Curaca or health care team in Leticia e.g. a small amount
of money or useful resources provided by the community for their work.
e)
Work in cohesion with the local government and the
Curaca in order to gain more support and resources for the residents.
f)
One of the most ideal
recommendations are for there to be more emphasis and use of the natural
pharmacy they have close by, this alongside the help of the Shamans. However we
understand that this may be the most challenging.
g)
The community boat should be established as accessible
for emergency trips because this was not the case during our stay. In this process, the Curaca and the residents
should always be involved.
h)
Hygiene should be continuously promoted by volunteers
and in order to raise the consciousness of its importance by the residents.
English
Classes
Information:
·
Children and Teenagers attended daily English Classes
between 2pm and 4pm.
·
Attendance ranged from 20-40 in the initial weeks and about 15-30 in the last weeks
·
Attendance was higher on school days
·
The classes were held in a school classroom completely
available when teachers were present in the village and when not the caretaker
had access to the keys
·
Lessons were split into two levels depending on age, 4-10
yrs from 2-3 pm and 11 yrs onwards from 3-4 pm.
·
Topics introduced by previous volunteers were
continued with including numbers, colors, greeting, food vocabulary, animals
and for the older class an introduction to basic verbs.
·
The lessons consisted of a mix of activities including
pronunciation and grammar games, writing activities as well as art and craft
activities.
·
Balloons and sweets were used as incentives.
Evaluation
It’s important to understand that the children
and teenagers are very shy and reserved and so it’s essential to use lots of
icebreaker activities and positive encouragement to build confidence. It took
time for many to speak a word in English.
Although attendance was good (particularly in the
first two and half weeks), Interest in the classes did reduce and I believe
this is due to a number of factors including:
A)
The children only had 8 days of school whilst we
stayed in the village; this was due to a variety of reason including weather
issues and teachers attending meetings however it was apparent that Children in
neighboring villages had far more school days than their La Libertad
counterparts.
Breaking from this routine meant that some had
other responsibilities such as working in the field, going to Leticia, or taking
care of the home.
B)
Some children lost the initial interest particularly
when incentives were not used as it was impossible to provide daily sweets.
There are several issues in terms of the education of the residents of La
Libertad. As mentioned the children
regularly miss school and so are lacking the fundamental educational attributes
such as reading and writing. I witnessed many children aged 9yrs plus who were
unable to recognize a word in Spanish, 12-15 children aged between 6-10 yrs
were unable to spell basic words and had difficulty handwriting. This obviously hinders the learning process
of English due to them having difficulties and needing support with their first
language.
Adult lessons were offered to the community on numerous occasions,
some showed interest and it was arranged to hold these classes in the morning. When this was not suitable evenings and
weekends were offered, however, the interest was not followed through and adults
did not attend. I believe that this is due to their lack of confidence, particularly with their own reading and writing skills.
During our stay, it was evident that neighboring villages wanted to
increase their tourism and requested that many adults were interested in the
classes.
Recommendations
·
Although English Classes would be beneficial to the
residents of La Libertad, I am of the opinion that there needs to be a more
holistic approach to the education of the residents. Recruiting primary and secondary teachers or
teachers in training with a good level of Spanish would be extremely beneficial
in all areas of education e.g. Spanish, Math, and Sciences. English in my
opinion is a long-term goal.
·
Recruiting art workers and playworkers as volunteers
would be beneficial to the children of La Libertad. Many of the preschoolers
relished the opportunity to create and learn. This would enable them to have a
head start prior to attending school.
·
Support not to use their traditional languages. Many
of the older adults speak within their own language such as Yagua however many
are not continuing with this process. It would be useful to link with other
local villages that encourage the active learning of the traditional
languages. This is just as important to
their culture as learning a new language.
·
Long-term or consecutive teacher support. If future volunteers wish to support English
teaching it would be ideal to have long-term stays in order to impact the
language development. This would limit
the breaks in children learning a topic and then forgetting it due to a break
in learning. Long-term volunteers would also have the opportunity to develop
relationships with adults and encourage learning.
Childcare
Information:
During our stay, it was evident that the responsibility of childcare
varied from family to family. Some take their children to the field and fish
with them. A large majority of babies and toddlers however are left in the care
of their siblings, many as young as 6yrs old.
In some extreme situations, we witnessed children as young as two being
left unattended and unsupervised. In one incident one child of two years old suffered
burns to his leg whilst being left unattended whilst his parents bathed in the
river.
Numerous children had minor accidents whilst being left unattended which
Dani treated; fortunately, major accidents did not occur that we were aware of.
Evaluation:
It is necessary to understand that some families do not feel they have a
choice about childcare when they have a responsibility to work in the fields and
fish however there are accidents waiting to happen.
La Libertad does not work as a community to address this issue.
Recommendations:
·
We were informed that neighboring villages have
systems to address this issue. In Zaragoza and Macedonia, the Curaca´s organize
childcare duties between families in order to share the responsibility. This
would be suitable for La Libertad but in our personal opinion, further community
cohesion needs to be addressed.
·
Childcare education/classes would also be beneficial
to the residents particularly as some mothers are very young and would benefit
from the support.
Economics:
·
Many families live within extreme poverty within La
Libertad and rely heavily on childcare benefits and charitable donations. During our stay, the community received a
charitable donation of medical supplies from a tourist cruise liner. These
donations from the same company occur annually. The donation is based on the
request from the previous year.
·
The medical donation included 5 boxes of x 100
painkillers, 3 boxes x of antibiotics. 12 antibacterial, anti-inflammatory
creams and 14 boxes of purgatives medicines 8these were administered by Dani
before being giving to Emma (health volunteer)
·
The village receives 5,000,000 COPS annually from the
local government. This year this money was spent on construction and supplies.
·
The village also has a contract to produce plantain
and other such products in exchange for benefits from the local government.
·
A minority of residents have profession such as in
tourism (Gustavo) and running small shops (Curaca)
·
Many of the families make artisan crafts to sell to
visiting tourists.
·
The majority of families survive by farming and
fishing.
·
Many families have motorized boats and the cost of
these, as well as petrol, is expensive.
Evaluation
Many of the villagers complain about the lack of money they received in benefits
and many suggest it is not the correct amount; The Curaca has not addressed
this issue with the local government. Some families may be entitled to some
more money. We were told by some
villagers that under other Curacas, the families had access to further resources
and benefits but they have diminished in the past years.
The families with outside work such as in tourism prosper far better
than those without.
A great deal of money is spent by families on traveling with their
motorized boats. The cost of this takes money away from other necessary things.
The artisan makers make very little money from selling their crafts as
they do not have numerous tourists on which to rely on.
Recommendations:
It would be useful for future project workers to understand what
entitlements the villagers are missing and address this with Curaca and local
government.
It would be good to address alternative transport systems for the
residents of La Libertad and to encourage sharing transport with other families
in order to reduce the cost. This was addressed during our stay but needs
further focus.
Life, Culture
and Community of La Libertad.
The residents of La Libertad originate from the Amazons of Brazil,
Colombia and Peru.
Many of the families are large and extensive some families have 8 or
more children. In addition, there are very young mothers residing in La Libertad
some as young as 15 years old.
Unfortunately, due to the illness and death of their families, there are
numerous orphans within the village who live with either elderly grandparents
or older siblings.
Evaluation
During our stay we became aware through talking with villagers that
there are issues of community cohesion, some of the minority families such as
those from Brazil tend to be poorer and less integrated. There are also issues
in terms of which members of the group can run for Curaca: those originally
from Colombia have been the only leaders of La Libertad in recent times.
It’s important to understand that those who have big families are a sign
of health and fortune within the community, however many are unable to cope
with the growing number of children. Many of the residents are under the age of
18 and numerous mothers are very young.
This has had an impact on the above issues such as child care education.
One major concern is specific to some of the orphan children with
elderly grandparents, is there a system in place for children without care?
Recommendations:
It’s incredibly difficult to be recommending many aspects in relation to
the culture of La Libertad. We are not
in a position to change these long-term issues.
They need long-term relationships to tackle some issues such as racism,
discrimination, and the issue of the high birth rate. These are issues seen
within numerous societies. However, it is essential for the project to be aware
of how they affect relationships within the community. Linking with community
workers would benefit the village.
It would be positive for some focus to be on the development of the
childcare systems related to those children with elderly grandparents and this
may be developed by future volunteers in connection with the Curaca and local
childcare teams.
Information
for Volunteers
We are adding some information that was created by previous volunteers
in order to help future volunteers.
·
Living conditions are adequate for Volunteers and the family of Gustavo and Rosalba make you feel very welcome.
·
Bring dry and canned food. Fruit and vegetables are not suitable and do
not last very long.
·
Bring a plastic container for the food. We had some issues with nightly visits from
rats attracted by the food.
·
Security is not a problem. We never had any issues
with belongings being taken. The children love to look through your possessions
but are very respectful. There is now a lock on the volunteer hut for your
peace of mind, however.
·
We suggest that volunteers have a good level of
Spanish in order to communicate effectively with the residents or have a full-time translator. On occasions, it can be difficult for a native speaker to
understand some of the local colloquiums and this needs time to understand.
Speaking the same language does build confidence with the residents and enables
relationships to be built.
We do not wish to hinder volunteers from going
who do not have a good level of Spanish but would just like to highlight it
would be very difficult without it. An example of this is that we found some discrepancies and faults within the last report
due to language issues.
These are only our recommendations and ideas due to our experiences in
La Libertad and in our professional fields as a nurse and youth and community
worker /English teacher. We feel that it
is necessary to highlight that health care is not a moderate issue as previously reported. It is a high priority. We feel that teaching
English or focusing on ecotourism is of a low
priority at this stage and should be addressed once other aspects are
focused on.
In our opinion, if the project really
wants to help the community it has to listen to the requests of the people and
spend time living with them. It would be
an injustice for people such as Bebeto, Haco, Olga, and Vicente to ignore the
real issues such as Water and Health.
New volunteers should have the opportunity to influence and evaluate the
needs of the project due to it being in its early stages. Through collaboration, this will be more effective.
We recommend this experience to anyone really willing to help. It’s an experience of a lifetime.
Diane and Daniel
