Help break the cycle of violence and poverty

Why does the moon chase us, how many floors does the Coltejer building have, what places produce happiness, how to return to Venezuela, how is painting done? Many questions. Questions that are the key to curiosity, the beginning of creativity and an essential element of critical thinking. And each one of them has been the result of the process that has strengthened the R3Cre0 program of the Casa Tres Patios Foundation in the 16 meetings that have been held in four months of implementation.

There are 20 children who have been impacted by this initiative, but more than numbers, each one of them is a story, a world with experiences so varied that they seem more like those of adults than those of people who are living their childhoods, and that is why R3Cre0 has been valuable, because there, in that space of two hours every Saturday, they can jump again, laugh and awaken their amazement, that is, recover the child they are.

And that is the case of David Octavio, 10 years old, who lives in a tenement (to be more specific, he inhabits in an overcrowded room where other people with few resources live) in Barbacoas, in the center of the city. He is cared for by his grandparents who sell second-hand goods under a bridge. His mother is a drug addict who lives on the streets, and he is a child with a wounded heart, a child who has always had to be a big boy. However, David never misses an R3Cre0 workshop and in the course of 16 meetings he has become a leader, a person who participates and who feels he has a place in the world where he is valued and, above all, he has a safe space, where the workshop leaders, an educator and a psychologist have accompanied him so that he can open up, express the complex emotions that cross him and heal his memories. The road is still long, but the process does not stop. 

Every Saturday, improbable things happen, or perhaps not so improbable for the context in which the children live, and they go beyond planning. The changes that occur in each life story are subtle in some aspects and in others very noticeable. Such is the case of Maru, 8 years old, who is always willing to go to R3Cre0 because she feels that no one judges her for her appearance, because it has been a place to interact with other children her age without being a victim of bullying and learn to feel more self-confident.

At Casa Tres Patios we know that it is difficult but not impossible to have an impact on the narratives of these young people, so in two hours per week the children can explore, create and, in addition, have positive references. The good news is that R3Cre0 is growing and from the last week of August we will begin to open another group in which curiosity, creativity and critical thinking are skills that can cultivate children living in vulnerable situations in the heart of the city, those children of informal workers who do not have resources to enroll them in private classes to stimulate their development or who have no one to take care of them and take them out to work with them. At that moment, when we want to have more impact, we are grateful for every impulse that you as a donor can give us, by sharing, donating or spreading the word about what we do. And today, as well as every day that R3Cre0 is possible, we want to tell you: thank you.

Links:

• https://en.casatrespatios.org/single-post/empowering-vulnerable-children-in-medell%C3%ADn-join-the-recre0-campaign
• https://www.instagram.com/p/Cv0VgFeNjGr/