This week I spoke with a friend in El Salvador. She is a
doctor who travels to various villages to administer, and also teach about,
medicine. She teaches women how to be midwives, basic hygiene to prevent
sickness, dental care, and basic preventative measures to stay healthy. She puts a lot of focus on the children because she knows that a healthy life depends on a healthy start.
I asked
her what her professional hopes, dreams, and challenges are. She hopes that all
the people can overcome themselves to understand that medicine and knowledge
are not bad. She hopes that what she teaches the children about taking care of
themselves will not be forgotten, but will be used to help the children be
safer and healthier. She hopes that more parents allow their children to be
treated for various sicknesses so that they will not be hurt permanently. She
has daily challenges with old culture clashing against new innovations. “Some
of those clashes are good, they challenge us to question if the new way is
really better. But some of those clashes are bad because they prevent children
getting the help they really need.”
I also asked her what some issues regarding
early childhood education were where she works. She clarified that not all of
the children in the villages go to school, and those that do attend do not go
every day. She also reminded me of the school environment; few desks and chairs
in the room, a couple posters, some rooms have chalk boards, there are some
books but not enough for every child. She responded that the focus with
children is teaching them to read, write, numbers, and daily living skills.
There has been talk from time to time about including some English into the
school day, but not enough of the teachers are familiar with English and some
community members disagree with teaching it. The main focus with children is
helping them attend school. The government helps by giving families vouchers
for school clothes, books, and school supplies. Some families are still not
able to attend because the commute to school is too far for their child to
travel daily.
Thank you for sharing this experience with us. Is your friend working for an NGO? Is she there permanently? What an interesting, and I sure rewarding, experience. It must be frustrating too at times to see all the potential children would gain by following her advice and yet having families resist her ideas.
ReplyDeleteThanks you for this post Jennifer! I think it is great what your friend is doing in El Salvador. Is this what she does as her full time job or is she volunteering? I do think the government is making a great effort by giving families the vouchers for school clothes etc. However, I still believe enough isn't being done. If children cannot go to school because of distance, more schools should be built so no one has to worry about commute.
ReplyDeleteJennifer- It sounds like your friend is making an incredible and positive differences in lives everyday. I agree with her about some new things are great, and many old things are fine just the way they have been for years. Hearing stories like this one, make me question what more I can do to make a difference in someone's life. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteDonna
She does this work permanently. She is paid through a church that supports various villages through their mission work. She does find it frustrating to have her advice not followed, but she is from this country so she also understands where they are coming from. I do think the government is doing a great job with their voucher program, but the country as a whole is very poor so a little help does not go very far. I absolutely think that more schools need to be built. Unfortunately, people live so far away from one another in some areas that many schools would have to be built for small groups of students to eliminate the commute for everyone. And Donna-I also question what more I can do in my community to help out those in need. Thanks for reading everyone!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog response I found something very interesting. What I found to be interesting is that the children who are in school don’t go every day. Do you know why some of them don’t go to school? I know that some children may not go to school because of money but I wonder why some of them don’t go every day even though they have the opportunity.
ReplyDelete