Volunteer Blog

Sam and Nelly at the Girl´s First Birthday Party

I spent six weeks with the foundation in March and April 2006 and had a unique experience. Amongst other things whilst I was there I helped to paint a kiosk from where the local women could sell their handicrafts, worked serving meals at the foundation and helped to improve the Castillo where many of the volunteers lived.  However most of my time was spent with four orphan girls who arrived at the Castillo just a few days before my friend and I.  

A few hours after our arrival Michael invited us out on a shopping trip for Eliana, 14, Delina, 12, Olga, 9, and Nelly, 6, who owned only the clothes they were wearing. They had been passed through three orphanages before arriving in Villa Tunari. We helped them each choose two tops and two pairs of trousers from a second hand clothes stall in a market a few miles away from Villa Tunari and this was the beginning of our friendship. 

For the first two weeks I worked in the Castillo while Nelly went to lessons at the foundation and the other girls simply spent their days in the Castillo. In spite of our limited Spanish, and non-existent Quechua, I and my friend got to know the girls better. They loved playing with my digital camera and playing games, especially when they were being chased. Nelly was a very sweet little girl who quickly gained confidence and was loved by everyone who met her, Olga was the tomboy and was very independent, Delina was quiet at first but slowly began to show affection and Eliana liked to play rough but was very caring and looked after her sisters.

It was then decided I and my friend, Emma, would be responsible for looking after them, with Michael, which the girls were happy about. Shortly after that we decided they needed some structure and began to school them in geography, handwriting, reading and math which they really enjoyed. We were also responsible for ensuring the girls got fed by taking them to the foundation three times a day.  Eventually though they were successfully enrolled into a nearby school in Chipiriri and we had a fantastic day taking them shopping for their books and stationery and the first new clothes and shoes they had ever owned. 

The following weekend we gave the girls the first birthday party they had ever had. None of them knew when their birthdays were so we held a celebration for all of them. A few days later we discovered the girls had been accepted into a home in Cochabamba for children who have been sexually abused. We went with them and coincidentally we had decided to leave the Castillo the same weekend to continue our travels. Thankfully it was a really nice place. They were sad to leave the Castillo and there were a lot of tears but it was the best place for them and it helped that their friends from the Castillo will be able to visit them and vice versa.

It was a very special experience and one which I shall not forget.

Samantha

England