"Children grown at the edge of the ocean" - Volunteering at Gurises Unidos

At the Universidad Católica de Uruguay, where I study, they offer volunteer work as a module, that was one of the things that attracted me about Uruguay when picking my choices for year abroad destinations, as I would be more exposed to the real Montevideo, not just the life of the "nice" neighbourhoods, such as Pocitos and Carrasco.

I volunteer at Gurises Unidos, an organization that fights for Human Rights of children and teenagers at both the national and international levels. It also helps the families and communities of those who are most vulnerable and whose voices are sometimes stifled.

It works together with the much bigger organization, Ielsur (Instituto de Estudios Legales y Sociales del Uruguay), which was created in 1984 with the purpose of defending Human Rights by the means of legal instruments. Since 1990 children and teenager have held a bigger chunk of their attention and that's where Gurises Unidos comes into play. It has now been 20 years sice their partnership. 

Gurises Unidos has a office for each of the main neighbourhoods of Montevideo and a team which follows it. They provide help for families who often turn up at their door with no where else to go, carry out street searches for children and teenagers who have been forced to live on the street, and provide afternoon activities for children and teenager whose parents are either in prison or living on the streets. They also provide guidance to teenage mothers and help towards finding a job to teenage who have finished school.

I volunteer with the team that organizes activities for vulnerable children. These children no longer live with their parents, they are taken care by their grandparents or elder siblings and are, therefore, more at risk of being forced onto the streets. Laura, Lucía, Iñigo, Flavia (a fellow volunteer from the Univeristy) and I get together once a week to plan the activity for the next meeting with the children.

The activities have a very rigid structure in order to attempt to maintain good behaviour. The structure is also aimed at helping the children to open up if they have any problems at home, as well as to develop the hability to listen and concentrate on a more monotomous activity. As an introduction, fruit, which has been prepared by us volunteers, is shared between the children, whislt they tell us about their week. Then the main activity is introduced, we spend sometime on it until its time have a snack, which they help prepare in the kitchen. This is my favourite time. It is when they are most keen to help and everthing gets done very quickly. We sit down to eat and talk. This part is lovely as there is very little focus and pressure on the conversation, I think this is why they are much more receptive and open at this time. The children then brush their teeth and we all wait for their relatives to pick them up. Although, two of the kids have to catch two buses by themselves to get home, where they will probably be greeted by a hostile environment.

The current activity we have planned has the theme of storytelling. The group of 10 children were separated into 2 groups of 5. In these groups the children have to develop round characters, these must have likes and dislikes, talents and a personality. My group has developed a kite, called Carolina, in my hounour (hehe!), who is able to grow legs when on land and has the ability of herding sheep. I love our character and the children for creating her.

Volunteering has provided me a a very big reality check/shock. This past week has been one of the hardest weeks of my volunteering experience. We had planned a very nice activity for the kids but they took advantage of the fact that the main coordinator was absent and tested our limits to the maximum, I was bitten and hit and rejected by the children and a fellow volunteer was called names by a 8-year-old girl. They were out of control. I came home exhausted and stunned. All I could do was sleep and wait until the next morning, when the other volunteers and I would meet with the coordinator in order to talk about what had happened and plan for the weeks ahead. This was a very hard meeting. They explained to us why the kid behave the way they do. One little boy suffers daily physical and psychological abuse, not only from his relatives but from himself too. This hit me hard and I had to swallow back the tear. I have so much love for these kids, I want them to listen to me so they can help me help them. But I'm not sure that's possible. I have no tools or skills to make them listen.

It is also a challenge because one the kids is epileptic and we have to try our best to take her out of her shell. At home she takes the role of the crazy one and is unable to perform as well as she could because of this. Also, her medication makes her very sleep and sometimes its hard for her to participate in the activities.

It is all a challenge. Sometime I wish I didn't have to go but when I'm there and one of them holds my hand or gives you that genuine hug only children are able to give. It makes it all worth it. I know they will never remember me when they grow up but I will always remember them.