We slept in Trini last night which gave us the chance to buy Saltenas for the drive. Saltenas are an empanada type pastry filled with meat, potatoes, egg and lots of juice/gravy. Bolivians eat them for breakfast, you can only buy them before 11AM. The first time I had one I was warned; they are very hot inside and the filling has a lot of liquid. Still today, three years later I burn my tongue and spilt liquid all over myself!
In Nuevo Amanecer we are running a primary school “biblioteca” type program and for the secondary school children a computer/socio-economic project. When we arrived I noticed that all the kids had Alma shirts on with cool slogans on the back. But when we entered the classroom the first thing I heard the teacher say was “has everyone finished copying off the blackboard”? Exactly what we have trained them not to do. This time rather than just observing and working with the kids Ian just took over the classroom and engaged the kids in an awesome lesson around a story they were reading. Then we had the secondary school kids present their projects to date (on powerpoint) and we worked with them to help get them on track.
The biggest issue in Nuevo Amanecer is sexual abuse. Last year a girl, with a learning disability, was raped by a man from outside the community who was visiting a relative. When the rape came to light rather than pursuing the perpetrator the community closed ranks behind his family and did nothing. Our teacher was so incensed he quit and left the community. Katie got involved as did Ian. It was incredibly frustrating. Today, on our drive in the girl was walking along the road so we picked her up to take her with us. To actually see her and meet her just made me more enraged than I was when I first learned of the rape.
There are ten girls in secondary school here and today three are pregnant.
What we have done so far is bring in an organization called “defense of the child” to do trainings to the students on their rights. In fact they were here today but they look like a group of urban administrators who would have little purchase with indigenous children out here. It took us a long time and eventually we needed to ask the mayor to force them to actually come out to Nuevo Amanacer. There are many NGOs and government entities who claim to be working on this issue but I see no improvement on the ground. I think that because of our relationship with the community (our teachers LIVE in the communities) we may have a better chance at exacting change.
At the parents meeting I had planned on bringing the issue up but I was pleasantly surprised that a mother named Carmen did anyway. She didn’t directly reference the event nor use the word “sex” or abuse” or “rape” but we all knew what she was talking about. Sexual abuse is a huge issue here and in Peru – I will write a separate blog on the issue.
We also have an incredible success story here. We have recently found out that one of our students placed second out of 100 on a regional university entrance exam and will be going to university. He is the first ever from Nuevo Amanecer. He is now trying to get a full scholarship to attend university in Cuba. His mother described his journey to us all at the parents meeting and singled out the education that he had received from Alma and the extra help her son had received from our teacher in going to the exam centre and helping him prepare for the exam. By the end of her story she was crying and so was I.
