City Experiences, Interviews

Interview a with Volunteer

Rex Racer

By | February 21, 2009

Jaime-Jin

Jaime-Jin Lewis caught our eye while researching volunteer organizations in 2008 here in Buenos Aires. She struck us as being very down to earth, realistic and dedicated to making a difference. The following interview took place in Buenos Aires, November 2008:

What did you do here in Argentina and how did you find out about the volunteer work that you did?

I volunteer at Conviven, a community center in Mataderos. I initially found out about the center from another American friend in Argentina and was attracted to it based on the programs they had going on. The fact that they weren’t charging volunteers a fee, it seemed more authentic.

What was the volunteer work comprised of?

I started out teaching art in the center and eventually gained permission to go into the villa [slums] and teach art in a run down building there. However, after a few months, it became too dangerous for me to continue teaching in the villa itself and I reverted back to teaching exclusively in the community center. After a while, I took on more administrative duties and substituted in English classes as well.

What was found to be too dangerous?

There was an increase in the violence and they heard rumor of people specifically targeting volunteers. Sad, but true.

Were there any actual incidents that you heard of or experienced yourself?

Not that are worth sharing. It’s as safe as you can expect an impoverished neighborhood to be.

Tell us a little about what it was like being in the villa.

The first thing you see when you go into the villa , especially in the summer, are kids and dogs. And lots of them. It’s basically a self-contained neighborhood, complete with kioskos, peluquerías, parillas, but entirely constructed out of cheap, mismatched building materials, most lacking decent roofs and floors. All the signs for the stores are handwritten on cardboard and often misspelled. Nothing is new.

How did you enter and exit safely?

Two local teenage boys would escort us from the community center to the building where we taught. They were more of a preventative measure to make us look slightly more legitimate.

After arriving at the location within the villa what was that like? What would you teach?

I taught art, but that was complicated by the fact that, for most of the children, they had never been in a room where everyone was sitting down and participating in one single activity. My goal was to give them as much individual attention as possible, to convey that their time and work was important to me, and to model respectful interaction. I did not demand that they be silent or sit still; that would have been futile. I only required that they respect me and each other and desperately tried to make the daily activity interesting enough that they wanted to participate in it.

That sounds like it was tough work. I imagine that it was very rewarding. Were there any particular instances that you felt particularly proud of?

Actually, no. It’s safe to say that the children had such extremely difficult lives that I would be fooling myself if I claimed to have made any significant changes to that. They rarely show emotion and are so desperate for attention, that it’s next to impossible to form a connection with them of any depth. Nonetheless, they would recognize me when I turned the corner and run from their houses to greet me and that always made me feel like a million bucks. For me, it was about giving what I had to give and trying not to take it personally when they would reject all my good intentions and affection.

That was far from the answer I was expecting, but real and honest. You spent 9 months volunteering in Argentina every Monday and received nothing in return. Would you recommend that our readers volunteer as well? What did you take away from your experience?

Some organizations seem to provide a pre-packaged volunteer experience: you show up, they give you several projects to work on, take an album of photos of you with the street kids, put your testimony on their blog and call it a trip. Conviven is not that type of organization. It is what you make of it, and often people get frustrated and leave because it IS really difficult to feel like you’re doing anything of value. I happened to fall in love with the people who ran the center, who can be described as disorganized, “uneducated,” non-philanthropic, bitterly impoverished Argentines.

What was the most positive experience you had while volunteering?

The entire experience was positive overall. I got to see a side of Argentina that I would otherwise have not been able to and I got to work with really amazing people from around the world. In the end, I learned a lot about myself as a person, specifically in light of the always-pressing need for social justice around the world.

So you saw a very real side of Argentina that almost all tourists and most dedicated volunteers don’t ever see. Why did you stick it out despite the obvious difficult future of both the program and the kids you were helping? Most people would have found a better organized program that made them feel like they were making a difference.

First, I think a large misconception, especially among privileged Americans, is that volunteering is about what you get out of it–which is an ironic idea when you think about it, no? I went because it’s not the children’s fault that they’re in that situation. They deserve to have someone care about them even if their parents can’t provide adequate food, if their government can’t provide adequate education, if the well-intentioned community center doesn’t have enough resources to make a significant change in the community.

Would you recommend that any of our readers volunteer here? If so, where and how would you recommend they go about signing up?

Identify what you want to get out of the experience–where do you want to go, what do you want to do, how much time you are willing to spend, are you looking for a volunteer community? Do some internet research. There are tons of organizations that place you in programs based on your interests and places you can contact directly. The most important thing is to approach all volunteer experiences with an open mind and the willingness to be used in unexpected ways.

Rex Racer
LPBA Staff

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