Merve with kids

Today I was able to get out of the office a little bit and visit some of our Care and Community placements with Carmen Copa, our Care program supervisor. We first visited an orphanage on the outskirts of Cochabamba in the town of Quillacollo. The orphanage houses boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 15 but when we visited all of the older children were at school while our volunteers helped the local staff members with the care of the younger children. The children live in smaller houses (casitas) with around 10 kids per a house, so it is like a little village!

It was just my luck that when we arrived, it was playground time!

More photos of volunteers and the kids after the jump!

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These are some of my playground buddies. They have way more energy than me!

Since playground time was the favorite time of the day growing up, I jumped at the chance to help out our volunteers and supervise play time. For the next hour, I was supervising the jungle gym, running around and manning the swing set as three boys with boundless energy wanted to be swung higher and higher. By the end of our playtime, I was exhausted! But everyone on the playground was calling me “tio” or uncle so that made it all worth while.

We moved indoors to visit with three volunteers, Merve, LauraBeth and Phyllis who were looking after children in their casitas.

Here is Phyllis!

Here is LauraBeth!

As each house has a TV and DVD player, a treat for the kids is to watch some music videos. Here is Merve overseeing an impromptu dance party.

Besides assisting the local staff, our volunteers on the Care and Community program have initiated a daily activities session where the children do group activities, solve puzzles, play with blocks and draw. The kids love it and it really helps them with their development.

A big thank you to all our volunteer “tia” and “tios” in Bolivia who are helping and making such a big difference!