COMMUNITY CENTERS

Many children and teenagers love sport, especially football. Through sport, we wish to strength their self-love while teaching values of commitment, responsibility, respect, discipline and teamwork.

As they don't often have other form of entertainment, children of poor communities spend time kicking a ball in the street or on the cement fields built in almost all neighborhoods of Latin America. Without structure and organization, this environment can be intimidating for the youngest children, particularly the girls, who would also like to have fun and participate.

We exploit the interest and use sport as a means to teach essentials skills and values , and to prevent children and teenagers to take part in antisocial activities in the street. We encourage the youngest children and the girls to participate and even if the focus is on football, we wish to broaden the horizons of children and make them participate to other sports like basket, volley, baseball, frisbee, tennis ...

Even if most of children in high school have english classes, they rarely have the opportunity to hear or speak with anglophones. We encourage them to speak by singing, playing games in english and simply having fun.

Most of children are already bilingual in Spanish and in an indigenous language and so, have the potential to learn english. They also are exposed to english through popular culture and internet, and, in many cases, they are motivated to learn. However, many parents, and teachers as well, don't take this matter seriously or don't have the skills to support them.

We try to develop their self-confidence and their abilities to communicate by encouraging them to speak english while having fun. We use various techniques as games, songs and movies.

Many children live in communities or accommodations without clean water. Their food is often really poor and hygiene standards are low. We try to improve the situation for the children by teaching them to take better care of their health.

A poor diet and poor sanitations put the children at risk with chronic and acute illnesses, and infections. Yet, these diseases are largely preventable. But on the fields where we work, health care are not always accessible. Children of these communities are also often physically and psychologically abused. Even if we can't fight all these causes, we try.

Everyday we give drinking water and a healthy snack – fruits, vegetables, eggs, biscuits ... In our classrooms, we provide soaps and water too so that each child is able to wash his hands before eating, but also a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Children living in poor communities have little time to learn new skills and talents that are not immediately "useful".

We fill these gaps by managing projects that, while not created to gain specific knowledge or skills, captivate, entertain and inspire children, and at the same time reinforce the values ​​of our work. We discover and develop talents for art, music, theater, dance... that could have remained hidden.

In the poorest communities, young children often find themselves in environments that are not favorable to their development and lack access to basic care and protection. We provide a safe place where children can participate in social, creative and educational activities.

In families where both parents work long hours, they find it difficult to meet their basic needs, and there are few options for young children. They often accompany their parents to work or stay with their siblings at home. One of the consequences for children is lack of affection, stimulation, social contact at an important time in their life , when they should develop quickly.

We provide a safe place where children socialize, learn Spanish, reading, values, fundamentals principles but also to take care of themselves and they can be creative. This project has the advantage of taking away from older siblings the weight of responsibility they would have had - and they too can participate in the activities.

Since 2018, Bolivia Digna has been supporting even more the two communities in which it has been working since 2014 and helps nursery schools in the morning, with whom we share classrooms for our own activities in the afternoons.

Both kindergartens need help and support with children. Especially in one school, the teacher is alone with 35 children from 3 to 7 years old and it is extremely difficult to manage them all and to have more activities adapted to their age. The risk is that children do not get all the attention and explanations they need at a crucial age (some learn to read and write, as well as basic mathematics) and thus start in life with, already, difficulties at school.

Volunteers can work in the morning in a nursery school to help teachers manage classes, but also to offer children activities that are better for their age. The volunteers work with the teachers and support them by helping and re-explaining to the children if necessary. But they are also encouraged to take initiatives, suggest activities and / or prepare activities on a specific theme given by the teachers.

In general, anything that benefits the community, also benefits children. We initiate, facilitate, and assist with projects or actions that improve the environment, infrastructure, the living conditions and the status of communities.