MEDLIFE has been involved with the Cuna Jardin Virgen del Buen Paso nursery project for over a year now and in this time have refurbished much of the interior to create a more hygienic space, have built a wall to enable the children to have a safe area to play and created a slope to allow easy and safe access to the nursery. Last week, the MEDLIFE mobile clinic was working on developing a garden in an area of land outside the nursery to allow the children to have a green space to run around in and play in the fresh air.
Our summer volunteer affairs interns and volunteers at last week’s mobile clinic were out in the field helping with the conversion of this area of wasteland into a green space that is safe for the children to play in. After removing all the dirt and trash from this area, the process of constructing the garden could begin.
During the week we got a chance to visit the children in the nursery to find out more about how this area will benefit them. The nursery has around 350 children attending every day aged six months to five years old. There are six classrooms to separate the children according to their ages and abilities. The youngest children spend most of their time playing with toys and learning about the world around them.
The elder children do more active learning. One class was being taught about how to behave in school, another was practicing handwriting and others were creating pictures for their fathers for ‘DÃa de los Papas’.
Each class we visited sang us a song and some even included a dance! All the children seemed so happy to be spending time with their friends and teachers and to be able to perform to us.
For Tatiana Gerena, it was even more special to see this project in its final stages as her brother, Rolando Gerena, was the volunteer affairs intern who began the project last summer. Rolando (known affectionately as Roly at the nursery) fundraised via social media after he saw the state of the play area outside the daycare centre on a visit he took with fellow interns.
The nursery is located in San Juan de Miraflores, a district that contains some of the most impoverished communities in Lima. The headteacher explained to us why it was so important for the children to have this area to play in due to the state of the community around the centre. “It is not a safe community and the parents want to know that they have somewhere safe to leave their children. Many of these parents work every day and so knowing their children have a safe building and a good place to get fresh air is very important to them”
We also spoke to some of the children who told us how they were looking forward to the park being finished. 4 year old Luciel told us “When it is raining, I like to play inside. But if it is sunny, it would be nice to be able to play outside”.
Previously, the only outside playing space the daycare centre had was a small playground that was fenced in. Now the children have a large green area to run around in, get fresh air and enjoy the outside.
On the day of the inauguration, all the children were very excited to see the completed outside area and the finishing touches that had been added to the wall. The day had a feeling of celebration and festivity about it with balloons hanging around the nursery, speeches from different parties and performances from the children.
The headteacher told all the volunteers and MEDLIFE interns what the garden meant to the school. She said “I want to thank you all so much for all your hard work. It means alot to us to see people like you coming here and caring enough about our small community to build something like this for our children.”
