One more month of Fighting Poverty in Belize. Now that were 3/4ths of the way finished everything is coming together smoothly and also with a sense of urgency. I think this last month we have really found our bearing in the community and more of an understanding with the people and its culture.
This last month has been very successful and I would like to highlight the Humana Kids Club one of our bigger successes in the village. We started in early July to organize the Humana Kids Club, we decided to do this in concert with other "kids clubs" being organized throughout the country by Humana, the only difference being that the other Kids Clubs were for tots going into school and ours was for kids of all ages. This was due in part because we aren't fluent in Kekchi and the tots don't usually speak English. Anyways consistently we have between 10 and 20 kids attend, it is every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am. The Kids Club is focused on education and especially getting the children active in their communities so obviously that's what our activities focus on. Getting the children involved in the community is also a main point in the Humana People to People Child Aid projects throughout the world and I think we have really done some good work living up to "Child Aid." Here is a chronological list of the Kids Clubs so far:
1st Kids Club(KC): We taught the children about being gracious. And stressed the importance of saying thank you and your welcome (since we've been in the village the only times we've heard these two common phrases is from ourselves). We stressed to them that they should go home and tell their mom thank you for cooking for me. After later investigation I'd say at least half improved. We ended with a tag game called shark and minnows.
2nd KC: We had a geography lesson about Belize. The children located where on the map they lived and also drew pictures of Belize marking important towns and places of cultural interests. We continued with lessons in graciousness and also emphasized empowerment in the community, the kids were running around yelling "POWER TO THE PEOPLE". Sharks and minnows marked our conclusion of the day.
3rd KC: We started with cleaning the community center and around the area, then we made cards for those we love and appreciate. The kids also talked about sharing with each other and respecting boys and girls. The children had a good time and after a game of very muddy baseball took their cards home and gave them to their parents.
4th KC: The children learned about the importance of keeping the environment clean and the devastating effects of plastic in water sources as well as on the soil. The children broke up into groups along with the help of a local high schooler and came up with phrases regarding the environment, such as: "Keep the river clean for us to play," "Keep the environment clean and healthy" ect. They then painted the slogans on wooden signs we prepared earlier.
5th KC: We went around the village and placed the signs in strategic locations near the river and at high traffic areas (high traffic in Otoxha hahaha). This was particularly a fun event, the children were all beaming with pride on their success of working towards raising environmental awareness.
6th KC: This was our latest KC and a very empowering one it was. We had a "Kids Congress" in which we discussed points to make into a "Declaration of the Kids Club." A particular problem throughout the KC's is the little girls are shy and maybe due to their culture not promoted to speak up (which parallels with the village women). But Andra especially worked with them to speak up at this event and voice their opinion along with the often loud overpowering boys. We started with a first strong declaration that everyone voted on and approved saying "All kids are created equal." We came up with about 10 or 11 others my favorite being "Adults should respect the opinions of kids." We were really proud of the little Otoxhains and it is clear the KC's are having an effect on them.
In the future KC's we will paint the declaration on a community latrine Andra and I are in the process of renovating and they will present it on the Open Day/Football tournament we are organizing for the village.
I can already tell this month will fly by, soon we will be in our homeland where humanity will continue to guide us. For now we are committed to Otoxha and ensuring that this last month is a memorable one.
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