Grade 11 and 12 CAS students accompanied by Mr Boyer spent 3 evenings last week collecting food for the children in the Preventorio of Real de Gandia for the Christmas Campaign.
ASV students at the Mercadona in the center of Valencia and communicated to shoppers the situation the children at the Preventorio are in and why they need our help. Many of these children come from broken families and our being supported by the Preventorio Monday through Friday with limited resources. The shoppers were asked to purchase one item for us to take to the children. While doing this activity, we not only helped the children, but we also improved our communication skills explaining the issues involved and why we were volunteering. We collected to what amounted to 50 large grocery bags of needed items.
This week our students visited the Preventorio accompanied by Ms. Jackie and Ms. Isabel and engaged the students in a variety of Christmas arts activities. These were the students’ impressions…
“When it comes to the previous impressions that we had, we thought it would have been worse, as in the building would have been more destroyed and more abandoned, and the children would be more depressed and think more in a negative way. But when we got there, it was the total opposite of what we thought. The building was quite nice and homey, and the children were polite, friendly and energetic.”
“What we learned from this experience is that we always have to be positive about things and not to judge a book by its cover, as in you could be wrong about your impressions.”
“Our first groups where three year olds, we led four activities: decorating wooden Christmas trees, decorating cupcakes, and finger painting to make Christmas lights.´
“At first glance the children we visited were just like any other normal toddler you see. They loved to sing and dance and play with one another. But with a closer glance you realize that these children are dealing with a lot on their shoulders. They had deeper problems than most three year olds have to deal with. Some of the children were very aware of the reason why they were at the children’s home. The kids were very hyper and enjoyed everything we brought for them to do. When we left, the kids were very thankful for what we did, even though it was only a few hours.”
“Visiting the children’s home helped me to realize how thankful I am for what I have. It makes us see everything that we have and makes us more considerate to the kids who don’t have as much as we do. We can see the difference in schools and the level and quality of the education we are receiving. We met a child who was three years old and had just started talking this year. Also, there was a child who had been sick for three weeks but was still there at the school without medical attention. We see the difference in healthcare that is available to us and them. The children were very needy of attention and care and it was very hard not to spend all of your time on one child who you thought needed it the most. These are impressions that will stay with us for a very long time.”
A big thanks you to Jose Enrique Gayan who similar to Santa Clause made a special trip to the Preventorio to delivery the collected items! We also thanks to Mercadona for allowing us to campaign at one of their locations in Valencia.
