Life is a Game we Play.

A Trabajar...

So, I´ve been coming to the school Fe y Alegria every day since last Thursday, and finally today, I feel a little more stable about what I´m actually here for.

Fe y Alegria is a school for children ages 6-18 and is located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Cartagena. My job is to help make the educational experience more of a community effort. In most cases, there is little to no communication between the parents and the school, and we are trying to get them to participate more actively in their children´s futures instead of treating it entirely as the school´s responsibility. I´m working on a project called Familias Productivas, and I am going to be teaching the parents entrepreneurship, so that a) they can hopefully start their own business (making bread, jewelry, sewing, etc) and b) they can relate to the learning process their children are going through. Most of them have very little education themselves, so I´m going to be starting with the bare basics of creating a business plan.

While I feel entirely under-qualified for this and was really worried about everything yesterday, today I´m trying to look at it with a new perspective. If I wasn´t here, they wouldn´t be doing anything, so any help I can provide will make them better off than before. This is a brand new program/idea, so there are no guidelines for me to follow. I am still a little (a lot) worried about the language barrier- while I know I am improving, it is still difficult to understand the thick coastal accent, and even more difficult to understand people that aren´t educated. I´ve been doing a lot of research though, and there is a lot of material online about teaching entrepreneurship, so I know I can do this. I HOPE.

posted by Erin @ 9:09 AM