Week 6

So, before I talk about this week, there are some things that I didn’t mention last week that I would like to mention this week. About how organized the “creche” is: I was simply in awe! There is a group of volunteer doctors who work there. They kind of rotate by week. They also have various types of doctors, such as pediatricians, nutritionists, dentists, psychologists, etc.

Every morning, we had to do a “vistoria”, which is sort of like a check-up to check if the child had any bruises or any rashes, etc. This past week, one of the little girls had a long scratch one her stomach – turns out her sister had fought with her. Just a little reminder, she is two years old. 2.

Shifting gears, one thing that really impressed me was how the children are all under the same schedule. From 0 to 6, the whole “creche” does the same thing at the same time. For example, we put them to sleep at around 11:30~12. There are no children awake past that. In the whole creche. It’s really fascinating to see how they got that scheme going on.

One other thing that I thought was amazing was that the “creche” provides six meals to the children when they are having classes, and four when they are on vacations (which was this time of the year). So it’s breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner.

In the morning, after the snack, they are required to drink water, otherwise they are not allowed to play. I find this extremely good, because I saw how these children were struggling to drink the water. Like, as if it were a burden to drink the water. After lunch, they drink juice, and after dinner they drink water again. They can only get up after they finish the juice/water.

Also, one thing that caught my attention was the fact that Suzana and Nilda were the ones to teach many of these children how to use the toilet and ask to use it. As I mentioned before, some children come with their diapers from the night before, which is outrageous! Some of the children still had trouble in how use the bathroom, but they really learn fast!

The creche serves six “periferias”, which are poor neighborhoods. People who live or work there are allowed to leave their kids. The only problem is that there is a waiting list, since the place can only hold 180 children.

Since they don’t have any profit whatsoever, I did a lot of fundraising. I raised about R$ 300 (approximately $140), and I got what we needed the most, which was diapers. In the end of my work, I was able to donate  from 800-1000 diapers! It was awesome, since they tons of diapers a day, and they can only rely on donations!

(these were the cutest diapers I've ever seen lolol)

On the next post I will tell you guys about my last day and this really special kid I met, Guilherme J

Andrea