Day 12 - En Mi Corazón

During community service that took place every morning of this week, a group of our participants ran sessions on Critical Engagement of Conflict, very much like what we had done with them the past week,only with a group of local children from one of the communities. The children, coming from very poor backgrounds, were funded by an organization to go to primary school. However, school for them means being told that they worth nothing and will never achieve anything in life. It means being hit by a ruler on the back and on the hands. It means being pulled by their hair and being called names. It means having their confidence beaten out of them, the confidence that they need if they ever want to leave the poverty cycle in which they are born.

The community services came to an end this morning, with a lot of tears, smiles, hugs, drawings as gifts for the facilitators. Many participants were extremely satisfied and content with the process of the week and have finished their (for some, first,) service, feeling helpful and capable of making at least a small change. And that is were it often starts. My role the past week was supervising a wonderful group of 3 girls that chose to teach animal rights through art to 6 to 12 year old children in the public library. From full mornings of painting their favorite animals to making an animal rights charter (“Do you need water, food, shade? So does your dog!”), to learning about the vision of children (monkeys in Europe have a different vision than monkeys in the Americas, who knew). The group changed size but reached it maximum capacity with 20 children, all engaged in the art and eager to talk to us. It was a very satisfying week for us, and I can proudly say I can communicate with children in Spanish. But only the basics of course. As one of the participants asked me “Que hora es?” (what time is it) I understood “Corazon” (heart). You can’t have it all.

The Constructive Engagement of Conflict workshops (CECW) changed a lot, both for participant and facilitator. One of the participants briefed me on how it was going with the workshops, as the facilitators were shocked with the situation of the children. A safe space of trust had to be created amongst them in order to have the children share their stories and engage in the activities. They struggled, but managed to do this. The goodbyes sounded almost more intense than the end of a year at Atlantic College. A lot of tears flowed and email addresses and phone numbers were exchanged.

Though the course of the day was very positive, a horrific event hit some of our facilitators very personally. We had an activity planned in the end of the afternoon to share international news, of which the most important and current event was the bombing and massacre in Norway. At the time 20 deaths were confirmed but later that evening it had run up to an unbelievable 90. The shootings took place at a political youth camp, a place where some of our facilitators knew a good number of people. Events like this hit so much harder when it affects those around you on such an intimate level. This was the action of one individual, but the harsh truth in Mexico is that these numbers are almost part of people's daily life; they are embedded in the social structure that is created by the War on Drugs.

However, I cannot lose hope. Rather the opposite: I gain so much more trust in the strength of people as I watch our participants. It is a cliché that needs be said. Yet again this week I was blown away by the dedication of the participants in the CECW, their personal involvement with the students’ situation and most of all their creative and innovative ideas driven by a passion to make change. They put a lot of effort in making the workshops more worthwhile than the original plan by making personal books of all the things they have been teaching this week. Moreover, they got in touch with the organization that funds the children to update them about the situation, which hopefully will make a worthwhile change. They are going to write an anonymous article and try and get it to provincial level. One of the participants was telling me of his plans to continue similar sessions at home and create a network across Mexico to do the same and battle the unjust behavior these children have experienced.

 Though we facilitators are doing the ‘teaching’ in this project, I am not quite sure who is learning the most.


- Laura Brouwer (The Netherlands , AC 09-11)