The Educational Center “Saint Leonardo Murialdo” - English

 The Educational Center “Saint Leonardo Murialdo” and the Nursery School “Emmanuel” are two institutions located in the territory of Villa Nueva, Guaymallén; while the Nursery School “Guardian Angel” is found at Villa Marini of Godoy Cruz (Mendoza).

The three institutions work with very poor population and are situated in neglected zones. The children who attend them are sons of unemployed parents or with very precarious jobs (they pick up paper and rags…), or they have jobs for a fixed time (like harvesting of fruit and vegetables in their season, masons, etc).

 The two Nursery Schools receive 200 children between 2 and 4 years of age. Teachers, educators and auxiliaries carry out an educational project that considers the stages of the age of development. The children receive food (every day breakfast and lunch) as important part of the educational project aimed at the integral increase of the children.

The Educational Centre receives 160 children, and preadolescent boys and girls, from 5 to 14 years of age. They are children and boys who participate with interest in the Institution’s activities. They carry with themselves abilities and limits, and need to find a space of personal and affective attention. They learn through play and they can develop all the expressions: corporeal, intellectual and spiritual which the human being enjoys. The boys and girls work in groups, formed according to their age and class attended and are followed by teachers and educators. They do recreational activities (sports, play), educational activities (study hall), workshops of handicraft (folklore, ceramic, painting, manual ability, theatre) and working apprenticeship (carpentry). The “reflection workshops” offer to the children and boys/girls an integral, human and Christian formation that develops their creativity, freedom, sensibility and forms their citizen conscience, in order to become protagonists in the construction of a new society.

We try to realize an educational action together with the children, adolescents and families in social and communitarian risk. For this, fundamental part of our engagement is to work in unitary form with:

1.   The families of our children: it is active to this end an excellent social service that makes individual or family interviews, goes to visit their homes, proposes  reflection meetings, etc

2.   The Institutions (public and private) of the zone, which work for the promotion of the minors and the defence of their rights (Municipality, Centres of health, schools, ONG, Children and Youth Team, etc).

Among the plans that are implemented for the promotion and the integral growth of the boys, they are remarkable the “kiosks” for the monthly sale salary of several articles which the boys can buy with the “points” they accumulated during the month keeping some “rules”, like: scholastic results, respect for the cohabitation norms, good conditions of personal hygiene, fulfilment of the group activities.

The implementation of these and other commitments makes them “creditors” of a score that, accumulated during the month, renders them independent in order to buy in the “kiosks” candies and other sweets, items of hygiene and stationery, books, garments, shoes, toys and others.

From some time we have been able to realize another project in which we try to give answer to the adolescents who, for age reasons, do not attend anymore the Institution and return, after some year, to the Educational centre asking to join it as “animators”. This project helps to promote their abilities and talents. Therefore they realize several activities in groups, both in the nursery school and in the Educational Centre. Moreover they receive permanent formation and carry on reflection workshops, besides regularly attending secondary school. In exchange for their service they receive a small sum in order to cover their personal expenses.

It helps us to complete our service the fundamental contribution given to us by the Children and Youth Team of “El Sauce” Hospital that sees, in our Institution, children and adults for a psychology, psychiatry, speech therapy and psycho-pedagogy service. Moreover they hold a “school for parents” once a month.