When the Caracol A.C. team met 7 year old “Ponchito”, and his two brothers and two sisters, he was a very shy kid, who found it difficult to interact with other people. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, his school activities had stopped, and his mother had difficulty accompanying him and all of his children in carrying out activities to continue their learning.
“Ponchito” and his siblings were not the only ones who experienced these types of events. Among all childhoods, there was a feeling of sadness, confusion, stress and anger at the whole situation due to the coronavirus. Therefore, in the School of Butterflies, besides taking a classroom to the street where they stimulate basic learning devices, spaces for emotional expression are created, where they identify, recognize, manifest and regulate their emotions and feelings, activities related to music, theater and painting are carried out.
What are we going to do today?", “Are we going to play already?”. These are some of the questions “Ponchito” asks when he sees the educators from El Caracol, and then he hugs them. "Ponchito" has become participatory and sociable, in addition to that, his level of learning goes according to his chronological age and shows motivation to carry out the dynamics day by day.
Zeltzin, psychologist and El Caracol volunteer mentions: “I think that the activities are newfangled and dynamic, because they are made so that girls, boys and adolescents find a space to approach ways of expressing themselves such as painting, theater, physical activation, and music as means that integrate them into the culture of which they are part, besides being able to build it through what they created, and discovering or developing skills that were enhanced during the time we worked in this method in the School of Butterflies”.
Although in the beginning there were some difficulties for the participants of all ages to adapt to the activities, it’s true that as an environment of trust, a safe and close space is created, the activities are carried out with enthusiasm, joy and motivation.
Continuando con las medidas de seguridad sanitaria para protegernos del COVID-19, El Caracol AC, poco a poco, regresa a las actividades diarias para seguir fortaleciendo las habilidades físicas, cognitivas y emocionales de cada infante que fue afectado por la pandemia.
Tal es el caso de regresar al consultorio con el profesional de salud mental infantil para realizar diagnósticos psicológicos, ya que nos ayuda a tener una visión holística de las dificultades que presentan los niños y, al mismo tiempo, generar estrategias de intervención que cada uno de ellos disfrutan. En el caso de “Donovan” de 10 años donde, después de meses, pudo volver a visitar este espacio: “Hacía mucho que no jugaba. Es muy divertido venir aquí con la psicóloga… siento que no me juzga ”.
As “Donovan”, we will continue to monitor their physical and mental health with the help of professionals from the area of another 20 children. In addition, new methodologies will be created so that more profiles have access to a specialized diagnosis from the streets.
“I consider the role of Chamany important when working with children, the possibility of opening interdisciplinary spaces where, through gradual work, listening is provided and development is promoted, unquestionably affects their abilities, since it manages to provide them with tools that they achieve to use on a daily basis to solve situations that make it difficult for them and their caregivers in any area of their life”, mentions Paulina, a volunteer psychologist at El Caracol.
La apertura en estos espacios hace que los niños se sientan escuchados y muestren sus habilidades cognitivas y sociales sin sentirse discriminados, ya que lo consideran un espacio seguro donde jugar, divertirse y aprender cosas nuevas.
La pandemia COVID-19 fortaleció la creación de estrategias psicopedagógicas de El Caracol AC para seguir acompañando procesos educativos para garantizar los derechos humanos de los niños de la población de la calle, como “La escuela de las mariposas… un lugar para soñar, para conocer mis derechos humanos y promover la igualdad ”. Al mismo tiempo, nos llevó a conocer nuevos grupos familiares, que tuvieron que salir a la calle, porque no tenían suficientes fuentes para vivir.
Tal fue el caso de “Valeria”, una niña de 10 años, quien junto a su madre y su hermana de 13, tuvo que vivir la experiencia de la vida en la calle, complicando sus redes de apoyo, el proceso educativo en la escuela donde estaba matriculada y su interacción con sus compañeros. Sin embargo, junto con otras 15 niñas y niños, pudieron continuar fortaleciendo su aprendizaje y habilidades sociales interactuando con nuevos niños de la franja de edad al estar en La escuela de las mariposas. Asimismo, logramos darle acceso a un espacio habitable a la familia de “Valeria”, así como a otras 22 familias.
La madre de “Valeria” comenta: “Agradezco la ayuda que nos brindan como familia, porque estar en la calle se complica más con la pandemia, sufrimos más… especialmente los niños que no tendrían que vivir algo así…” Valeria ”me pregunta a menudo: '¿Cuándo se irá el equipo de Caracol?' porque se pone feliz cuando ellos ... y juegan con sus compañeros ".
“Sabiendo que hay niños que están viviendo su primera experiencia de vida en la calle, es algo grave ya que están en lugares expuestos a la violencia, además de la falta de apoyo para garantizar un espacio seguro para niñas y niños del gobierno . El trabajo que hacemos está favoreciendo que ambos puedan continuar sus estudios y también puedan ejercer sus derechos ”, dice Gustavo, uno de los educadores de El Caracol.
“Ximena” at 7 years old, along with her 6 year old sister, had never been to an educational inclusion space, because neither they nor their mother had their birth certificates and vaccination records. She wondered everday what it would be like to go to a school, where she could learn along with other kids and make friends. Her mother was determined to make the necessary procedures for the school registration of both of her daughters, but unfortunetly the health emergency started, due to COVID-19, which caused the closures of spaces to make the administrative procedures, and with that, guarantee their right to identity, education, and health.
Along with Ximena and her sister, another 10 children joined who, until now, had not been to an educational space, and, another 30 children that their school follow up was at risk due to lack of electronic tolos like cellphones, laptop, internet, causing a posible lap in their short and long term learning.
El Caracol A.C. has commited to generate a series of strategies to continue with the strengtheing of psychoeducational abilities, and acces to their human rights of girls, boys, teenagers and their families, despite the health emergency, carrying out all health security measures in the intervention of the “new normal” of the association, such as the implementation of “The school of the butterflies… a place to dream, know my human rights and promote equality”, a mobile device that takes the school to the streets, while providing legal advice fot procedures, positive parenting guidelines workshops for parents, care for physical health with vaccination campaigns and anemia diagnostic tests, and care for their emotional health with psychological therapies and monitoring calls for containment or case follow-up.
So now, “Ximena”, along with her sister, can experiment the coexistance inside an educational space, where where in addition to learning and strengthening their development, she shares with her parents and establishes support networks to accompany her in her physical, cognitive and emotional development.
“From my point of view, the Chamany project is very relevant, not only for the present but for the future of all children who live on the streets and who are accompanied in El Caracol. The work that is done to promote their physical, psychological and emotional well-being now, will be reflected in future years, where their development is full and off the streets ”, says Georgina, one of the new educators at El Caracol.
When the pandemic caused by COVID-19 began in Mexico, the federal government gave the indication that all citizens should stay home, and ordered the closure of non-essential spaces as a security measure. But what about girls and boys from the street population? In their case, there are few who have a living space, others are with their families in shelters, others are living on the streets. “Javier”, a 9-year-old boy, lives in a small room with his mother and two younger brothers, all of this thanks to the continuous effort his mother makes as a car keeper. Before the pandemic Javier went to the park, visited his friends to play, and liked to go to school.
The pandemic caused for “Javier”, like for other 30 girls and boys, a series of changes in their lives, now they can’t go to the park, they can’t see their friends and they can’t go to El Caracol, activities that they resorted to when they were in a state of frustration and boredom, making being in their living spaces more difficult for them. In addition, their school monitoring is at risk since they do not have the necessary technological tools such as a computer or television, which may cause an educational and learning lag.
That is why the team of educators from El Caracol AC designed psycho-pedagogical activities for each girl and boy in the street population, given the conditions of the context where each of them develop, and the physical, emotional and learning abilities of each one of them.
"I feel calm knowing that those of El Caracol continue to teach us things... The games they leave us are very fun and make me feel happy, so I don't get bored anymore... I no longer feel alone because my mom still plays with me", Javier says. Javier's mother comments: “No one, except for El Caracol, cared about us before COVID-19… and now during this situation, much less. El Caracol has been the only one that has supported us in these times… They come to visit us near a place where we live, they ask us how we are, they give us activities so as not to get bored… always everything under the protection of health care ”.
Chamany is a psychoeducational strategy that adapts to the needs of the street population, given the current situation. Girls and boys have playful tools to give continuity to their learning processes, and development of physical, cognitive and emotional skills, in addition to being activities that generate recreational and pleasant moments that promote healthy family coexistence, relaxation and emotional expression in the family.
"That this project supports girls and boys to work in their areas of opportunity, during this situation, is an action that not all associations do, since it is not possible to visualize the educational and emotional inequality that these populations experience before and during the health crisis”, says Karen, one of the educator at El Caracol.
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