Field reports Latin America
28.12.2015

Volunteering in the ALALAY project in Bolivia

"Standing up"

Katja Leidl on her experiences as a volunteer in a Bolivian children's village

After graduating from high school, I spent nine months in Bolivia working as a volunteer in a children's village for the ALALAY project. The village is located about 50 km from Santa Cruz, the largest and richest city in Bolivia.

More than 70 former street children between the ages of 3 and 16 live in the village - divided into six groups. Each group is led by two teachers, who alternate every seven days. So every Friday there is a change of rotation and the children spend the next week with a different person. However, sometimes it is not so certain that the teacher from the previous week will return, as the organization of the project is quite chaotic and the teachers are often forced to change groups for various reasons.

The children in a group therefore not only have to compete with up to 14 others for the attention of their teacher, but also experience a very frequent change of teachers. Each teacher has her own values and expects the children to abide by her rules.

Despite the permanent lack of regularity, stability and security, the children are happy about every teacher and every volunteer who comes to them, allow them to be close to them and show their gratitude.

Let me give you an example.

On my very first day at the children's village, I was asked to stand in for a teacher and take her place in charge of the group of 3 to 6-year-old boys. So I was to look after seven little boys on my own from late afternoon until the morning of the next day. I didn't know the rules of the group, nor the names of the children, not to mention the language - I could barely speak Spanish.

Needless to say, the evening turned out disastrously. I desperately tried to deal with the chaos, while the boys reacted differently to the situation: one hit the other, a third ran away, a fourth closed the bathroom door, which then wouldn't open, a fifth couldn't stop crying at the top of his voice,...

It took a lot of vocal and physical effort on my part until all the boys were finally in their beds with dinner in their stomachs.

The evening was anything but easy for me - but I don't think we can even imagine what an imposition it was for the children. Suddenly they were abandoned by their usual teacher and instead a completely unknown person arrived who didn't even speak their language. I'm sure that the boys suffered a lot from the situation.

And yet something happened the next morning that I hadn't expected at all. A boy was standing outside my bedroom door and when I opened it - he hugged me! The chaotic events of the previous evening seemed to be forgotten.

I would also like to tell you about another experience that proves how incredibly tough the children in the children's village are and that it is almost impossible to take away their happiness...

The educational methods used were often completely incomprehensible to me and usually had no pedagogical ulterior motive.

And so it once happened that the group of 8 to 11-year-old boys had done some insignificant little thing and the teacher punished them by locking everyone in the house and forcing them to do a general clean. For no good reason, the boys had to clean every last corner of their house instead of running around and playing outside with the other children.

I was outraged by this injustice and felt sorry for the children. But when I looked through the window into the house, I saw anything but offended, disgruntled boys - on the contrary! They waved cheerfully at me while they were busy cleaning, joking and having fun.

When I hear the word "stand-up", I associate it with these children. As hard as they have it, as much as they are pushed down - many of them keep getting up and don't let anything or anyone rob them of their zest for life.