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After the expansion of the Our Lady of Hope Day Center, located in Villa Florida, a town in the Quilmes region, southeast of Greater Buenos Aires, 80 children from a vulnerable neighborhood were able to receive school support and participate in recreational activities. That place used to flood regularly, did not have sanitary facilities or running water, and did not have adequate spaces for childcare. Before, they could not receive more than 20 of them, they had a precarious kitchen to guarantee breakfast and lunch, and they had to take turns entering the dining room.
Playing, resting and playing sports are all fundamental aspects in childhood development processes. However, in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, which includes 24 municipalities, 85% of children do not perform artistic activities, 91% do not perform extracurricular cultural activities and 68% do not perform physical activities. The lack of infrastructure in the most vulnerable neighborhoods makes it more difficult to fulfill these rights.
The Conurbano de Buenos Aires shows minors in extremely fragile situations, with permanently forgotten rights. There 63% of them live in poverty and 15% in poverty, according to the Observatory of the Argentine Social Debt. In this place, grassroots social and territorial organizations become fundamental containment and assistance networks. Engineering Without Borders (ISF) seeks to strengthen children in the suburbs through infrastructure works that promote the fulfillment of basic rights such as education, health, food and recreation.
Today the Our Lady of Hope Day Center is a containment space for children and young people from 5 to 15 years old, which operates from Monday to Friday from nine in the morning until nine at night. The referent Norma González says that the center is very important for the children of the neighborhood because it allows them to leave the street. "Here they find their own space," he says.
When improving the space one is fighting against a deficit that a great part of the Argentine children have: four of each 10 children does not receive stimulation through the word
Two years ago Norma, 57, contacted ISF and the organization decided to move forward with the work, which took place on Saturdays over two years. “It is important that construction does not interrupt daily activities. The boys have to be able to circulate without risks. Social organizations become places of resistance in times of crisis and with improvements we cannot interrupt their routine. In any case, we are exploring other constructive methods so that the process is not so long, ”says Natalia Zlachevsky, general coordinator of ISF.
After the work, a reception room was set up, decorated with colored flags, which brought together the 80 boys who attend daily. “If it rains, the boys can come to the center the same because today we have a place that doesn't flood. We also have more space to offer more workshops. Accustomed to being in a small room, where they were all piled up, the boys became more comfortable. Before, I often thought that it was not useful for me to fill the belly of the boys if I could not give them adequate space. Today I feel that we create a clean one with all the necessary comforts: an armchair to rest, corners to read a book or watch a movie, a place to bond with others. The next step is to improve the bathroom and the kitchen. ”, Says Norma.
In the center there is a popular library and a community playroom. When improving the infrastructure of the space one is fighting against a deficit that they have great part of the Argentine minors: four of each 10 does not receive stimulation through the word. They don't read stories or tell stories. Fatima is one of the girls in the neighborhood who goes to the center daily. He started attending when he was seven years old and now he will turn 15. There he discovered his talent with music. “We got a violin, it started playing and now we see it all day with the instrument,” says Norma.
The referent of the Observatory of the Argentine Social Debt of the Argentine Catholic University Ianina Tuñón considers that when creating infrastructure, it is necessary to communicate to the families their rights and explain to them why it is important that their children are inserted in the educational world earlier , regardless of whether or not they need care. “These spaces favor human development and generate more equity at the beginning of primary school. Also there, the boys usually have access to food. “You have to create structures of opportunities, but you have to accompany them with communication,” he says.
Women are usually in charge of caring for their children and if they do not have a place, where their children can be, they have no hours available to work.
Natalia Zlachevsky, general coordinator of ISF
For the coordinator of the Social Protection program of CIPPEC José Florito there are three dimensions of improvement in infrastructure. First build more centers for early childhood; secondly, improve the quality of the offer; and finally, improve the working conditions of care professionals, since it must be taken into account that 90% are women and work in precarious conditions in relation to other professions.
ISF also improved the infrastructure of the maternal garden La Florida, in the same neighborhood of the day center. Together with the local Municipality, work was done to expand the space, increasing the capacity of 80 children to 180 and doubling the number of teachers.
According to María Hernández, in charge of the general coordination of the management of ISF projects, with the expansion of the infrastructure a virtuous process is usually generated that leads to strengthening the organization, where the work is carried out. During the process, links are generated with companies and municipalities, which then endure and help them strengthen.
Nancy Perillo lives in the neighborhood and works in the garden for 16 years. Until two years ago, his work was in a very small nursery: there was a room where breakfast, lunch and snack were given; then there was a kitchenette and a little room, very small, behind. “At that time we had two shifts with 40 boys, each one, and they felt quite crowded. The boys deserved to have another reality, ”says Perillo. For mothers this space is necessary to go to work. “The early childhood projects in which we get involved are usually also gender projects. Women tend to be in charge of caring for their children and if they don't have a place, where their children can be, they don't have hours available to work, ”says Zlachevsky.
In this sense, the coordinator of the Social Protection program of the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth (CIPPEC) believes that infrastructure focused on early childhood spaces is a key dimension for child development, has many advantages for gender equity and enables the participation of women in the labor market. "Unpaid care tasks are one of the main obstacles to women's labor participation in Argentina," he says.
Now, the garden has three rooms, a kitchen and a living room. “There the boys play and eat the foods chosen by nutritionists. In the main hall we set up art galleries and birthdays are celebrated. Even when the neighborhood is flooded, families come to take refuge there. It became a space for the community, ”says Perillo.
According to Perillo, the need of the neighborhood in relation to vacancies is not yet met. “We need more rooms. Some four-year-olds stay outside because those of five have priority. It is very important that children go to preschool because it gives them tools to start elementary school. If they don't, they start at a disadvantage. In addition, people continually come to open a room for three years. It is a necessity of the neighborhood ”.
The importance of physical activity for development
Adriana Díaz is the director of the Children's House, an organization that is in Bernal Oeste, another town in the Quilmes region. She dreamed that the boys in the area had access to a pool and finally her dream is coming true. ISF volunteers work every Saturday so that soon 1,500 teenagers from 13 social organizations in the area benefit.
“The idea of the pool is born because as a social organization we try to take the kids on vacation every year. For a group of 60 of them we had to pay a small bus that cost us 100,000 pesos (1,500 euros). It is a very important moment for the boys because for many it was the first time they saw the sea or the mountain. There was a year we couldn't do it and they lent us a house with a pool. In a week they learned to swim. They were fascinated. I saw that he did very well. In these neighborhoods they do not access water, recreation or sports. They play in dirt fields with an armed ball. So we started to see how we could build a free pool, ”says Diaz.
The deficit of extracurricular physical or sports activities is very high and affects a large majority of children and adolescents in their development. These activities have a close relationship with physical health and with the development of skills and social integration. The construction of the pool was recently completed. Now the bathrooms and changing rooms are being finished. It is also necessary to make a roof, which is sliding so that they can bathe throughout the year.
In Greater Buenos Aires, 40% of children depend on school canteens to feed themselves daily, according to the Observatory of the Argentine Social Debt. Against this backdrop, in 2019, ISF completed the works of the dining room of the organization Todos por una Sonrisa, in the Altos neighborhood of San Lorenzo, in La Plata. There, a group of neighbors, provides food and containment to more than 300 minors. From the works, these activities are no longer done outdoors.
Maria Diaz is Peruvian, but eleven years ago she lives in Altos de San Lorenzo, an informal settlement. He came to study and work. She was the one who started putting together the dining room. Maria cooked fried cakes and gave the kids in the neighborhood a glass of milk. As he had no space inside his house he put a little story and there they sat down to eat. “I don't enjoy having a dining room. You see a lot of sadness and misery. But it is also a space for containment, strength and companionship, ”says Diaz.
The main aspect to improve was the roof. The construction was carried out in María's house and on May 18, 2019 it was inaugurated. Now, they have a living room, two bathrooms and the kitchen was improved. “Also, there is room for boys to receive school support and a workshop is held for women who suffer gender-based violence,” says Díaz. The ISF reference María Hernández points out that the lack of infrastructure is a reality in all the neighborhoods in which they work. That means that there is some right being violated. Each new classroom, each school and each dining room are spaces of affective availability, where relationships of trust, closeness and care are woven that seek to forge other possible childhood forms. ”
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