One place
HELP international works in El Salvador is the CIPI orphanage. CIPI, which stands for "Centro Infantil de Protección Inmediata" (Center for the Immediate Protection of the Youth), houses orphans and young mothers. HELP volunteers have spent many hours preparing activities, visiting the orphans, teaching life-skills, bringing them books, etc. An especially meaningful project was a support group HELP established for the young mothers at CIPI. Some of these mothers are as young as eleven, many of them victims of rape. They live at the CIPI with their babies temporarily, until they can find support from family or be prepared to live on their own. The mothers enjoy spending time with HELP volunteers, because of the non-judegemental love and encouragement they provide.
2008 volunteer, Stephanie Blood, had the opportunity to serve these girls and said that it was an unforgettable experience. “The girls were so sweet. They took care of each other and each others babies and shared everything.”
She and other volunteers planned weekly activities and taught valuable life skills including: infant care, nutrition, empowerment, and goal-setting. One day they had an activity with fruits and vegetables where they taught the girls the importance of healthy diets. Afterwards they made faces with the fruits, vegetables, and peanut butter. Another time, they planned a day of water balloon volleyball. HELP volunteers took care of the babies while the girls played.
Stephanie says, “Sometimes it was good to give the girls opportunities to just have fun and be girls which was so great for them because they have had to deal with so many huge responsibilities at such a young age.”
Of all of the activities they did together, one that stood out to 2008 volunteer, Whitney Smith, was square-foot gardening. It gave the mothers a sense of accomplishment and a skill they can use for the rest of their lives.
"We wanted the young mothers to feel like they owned the project, so we helped gather the supplies, showed them what to do, and let them do it,” said Whitney. “They were so excited and really worked hard! The girls dug out a spot for the garden, sifted sand, made a rock wall around the garden, put in posts, tied string to partition the garden into sections, and planted and watered the seeds. It was really fun to see the girls succeed."
The gardening technique uses one-third of the water and land and produces three times the yield of traditional gardening. Using this method, the girls have a way to grow vegetables for themselves and have excess to sell in the market.
The most important thing volunteers did there may have simply been talking to these young mothers, offering them love and support and letting the girls know that somebody cares about them. Stephanie said of her experience: “I wish I had stayed longer. I would wake up every morning thinking ‘I can’t believe this is my life right now!’ Every day you wake up ready to serve and just see what you can do for other people. It was the happiest I had been in years!”
This spinning circle thing where he goes faster and faster and becomes sort of weightless inside.
Acrobat girl who at one point was spinning really fast by her neck.
At intermission, we opted for the face painting instead of the $10 pictures with the poodles or the $12 elephant rides.
You probably can't tell what this is unless you've seen it. It's two motorcylces zooming around in the metal cage thing. At one point they had three in there. This was one of the boys' favorites too.
Of course you have to have elephants at the circus. This was the big trick where one crawls under the other. I thought the elephants were cute, except when it pooped.
Our self portrait - not too bad.
I eat anything and everything.
