Portsmouth Grammar School volunteering visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina - April 2009
Monday, 13th July 2009
Last week, Steven Page, Head of Spanish at Portsmouth Grammar School (PGS), popped into Cactus to present us with a fantastic selection of framed photographs as a thank you for supporting their first Volunteering Visit to Buenos Aires.
The photos were taken during the recent trip, which saw 15 sixth form pupils from the school embark on a nine day language and volunteering visit to work with underprivileged children in the shanty towns of Buenos Aires.
The students worked with Voluntario Global, a local charity operating at the heart of impoverished communities in the Argentinian capital. As well as putting their Spanish language skills into practice, a key feature of the trip was for PGS pupils to meet Argentine children in their own neighbourhoods and understand the reality of their life in a shanty town. The trip was possible thanks to the vision and hard work of Steven Page, Head of Spanish at PGS, and the support of the Suzanne Furstner Foundation.
During the trip PGS pupils were involved in many projects, including preparing meals for the local community of the La Boca neighbourhood in the food kitchen of Los Pibes community centre. Set up some years ago, primarily to feed the children of the poorest families of the barrio, Los Pibes has now grown to provide work opportunities for adults in the printing and sewing micro industry workshops as well as provide literacy, numeracy and English tuition to children and adults alike. PGS pupils were introduced to the various leaders of the community centre and also got hands on experience of T-shirt printing and baking.
The students were also involved in several day trips, including taking twenty teenagers from Villa 21, a shanty town in the Barracas district of Buenos Aires, to the cinema, and another twenty children from Los Querubines orphanage being taken out for the day to enjoy walks and games of football in the open air: hands on volunteering at its best.
As a result of the trip, several of the PGS students have expressed an interest in taking a gap year to volunteer, and even going back to Buenos Aires to do so, including Year 12 pupil Emma Hales, who was clearly inspired by the visit and writes: “my most memorable part of the trip was being shown around the Los Pibes community centre and the surrounding area, especially the humble homes and playing with the orphans in the park. To be honest, I’m never going to forget any part of the trip because it was all so amazing and so different to anything I have experienced before. Seeing the two sides of Argentina, rich and poor, made me appreciate how separated they are as people but then they all lived so close together, the slums and the ‘rich only’ developments. I learnt a lot, met some incredible people and experienced so many things I have never done before and may not get the chance to do again. I hope in the future I will be able to return to Argentina and if I did, I would love to help at the same places. If I take a gap year I would definitely do some volunteer work.”
Head of Spanish at PGS, Steve Page, comments: “We are enormously grateful for the support of the Suzanne Furstner Foundation and we trust Suzanne would have been proud of the work being carried out in her name. The support we received allowed us to not only see the children in their home surroundings, but also take them out to somewhere new for the day and give them the opportunity to play in a safe environment. To have been able to hire a coach and fill it with volunteers and children for an away-day was certainly a memorable event.”
The Suzanne Furstner Foundation also provided the group with video cameras so pupils could record aspects of their visit. A short film is to be made to show fellow pupils interested in the trip the benefits of volunteering in Argentina, which Steve hopes will become an annual event.
For more information about Steve Page’s work and Voluntario Global, please visit http://www.notesfrombuenosaires.com and http://www.voluntarioglobal.com.ar
Pictured from left to right: Richard Bradford, Managing Director of Cactus Language Training UK; Steve Page, Head of Spanish at Portsmouth Grammar School; Alex Wolfson, Cactus Language Travel Consultant and Head of Groups; Germaine Broadbent, Sales Director at Cactus Language Training.
Tags: suzanne furstner foundation, volunteering, suzanne furstner scholarship, spanish
Posted by Michelle Curtis 2009-07 under Cactus Language Worldwide, Cactus News, Cactus TEFL, Cactus News, Experience Cultures,
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