A Day In The Life Of The Restoration Centre

By Elspeth McNeil

The Restoration Centre

The Restoration Centre is a safe house for girls aged 12 - 18 who have been sexually or physically abused. The centre provides a refuge for the girls, allowing them to recover from their traumatic past, whilst supporting and empowering them through educational activities, gospel teachings and psychological therapy.

Hayley & I arrive at the Restoration Centre at 9am, by which point the girls have usually been awake for a couple of hours. At present there are 14 girls living at the centre including Susannah, the beautiful 2 year old daughter of one of the girls. We don't have a set routine but generally when we first arrive we help the girls with their chores, such as preparing lunch or helping to wash the girls clothes. On one occasion we were asked to sieve rice which we naively assumed was to get rid of dust until we noticed maggots nestling at the bottom of the bowl. Another particularly memorable time, we were peeling potatoes and found several worms inside them which is apparently a completely normal occurrence in Bolivia!

On Tuesday mornings we teach an English class with all the girls, and recently we have started to re-paint the courtyard walls (we've been waiting a few weeks for the paint to arrive). 

We all eat lunch together between 12-1. At the end of every meal it is a Bolivian tradition to go round the table thanking everyone individually. At first this ritual was absolutely dreaded by us because it was highly embarrassing not remembering or being able to pronounce every girls name! Sometimes we'd go to the extent of eating at a snail's pace in the hope that most of the girls would have left the table and there would be fewer names to remember. 

In the afternoons on Wednesdays and Thursdays we run extra English classes for the girls who don't attend school. On Fridays we run another workshop which can be anything from an art or acting class to making Banoffee Pie (which we did last week and went down so well we've been asked several times to make it again).

When it's quiet, we sit and talk with the girls or do something they want us to do like plait their hair or paint their nails. At the start when we couldn't communicate much we tried to do a lot of things like that just so that the girls would know we wanted to spend time with them. Most of them are really patient with us even though it is probably extremely frustrating that we don't speak their language and they now call us "Hermana 'ayley" (sister Hayley) and "Hermana Elsbet" (sister Elspeth) which I think means we have been accepted in to the inner circle.

We usually leave the centre around 4:30pm but this can vary depending on how much or how little there is to do.

Some days are really hard work but the majority have been fantastic, especially when workshops have gone particularly well. Over the last few weeks we have been able to form genuine friendships with many of the girls, although it did take a while to build up trust with them which is understandable. We would like to the think that the time we have spent with the girls has had a lasting impact on them, if not then they have definitely had a lasting impact on us. 

View from the roof of the centre

Uyuni Salt Flats

A few highlights from our trip to the Uyuni Salt Flats

Beautiful church in Oruro

Flamingos and train grave yard at the edge of the Salt Flats

View from cactus Island

The whole team and our beautiful guide

The team celebrating the end of a fantastic weekend

Meet the Team

Last week we officially started the project work. The 12 of us are split between 2 projects the first called Mosoj Yan and and the second Oesser. We are all extremely passionate about the incredible work that is being done by the project partners and so thought this would be a good opportunity to go into some detail about what they are doing. 

TEAM MOSOJ YAN

Lorna (Team Leader), Hayley, Emily, Laura, Elspeth and Amil

Mosoj Yan work with girls who either work or live on the streets of Cochabamba or alternatively have experienced sexual or physical abuse in the past. The 6 of us are spread between 3 Mosoj Yan Centres; The Restoration Centre, The Working Girls Centre, and The Motivation Centre.

The Restoration Centre (Hayley and Elspeth)

The restoration centre is a beautiful house which acts a safe haven for girls who have experienced physical, sexual and psychological abuse. The girls are between 13 and 18 years old and at present there are 14 living in the centre. This centre protects the girls whilst supporting and empowering them through educational activities and therapies. During their time volunteering at this centre Hayley and Els will be teaching English, running workshops and helping with the general running of the centre. 

The Working Girls Centre: (Emily and Lorna)

This centre is more of a preventative centre. It offers children who work on the streets, but who may still live at home, the opportunity to come off the streets and take part in educational activities and workshops. These workshops can be anything from teaching the children their rights to lessons on personal hygiene. Emily and Lorna will be supporting the educators, running workshops and helping with the running of the centres.

Sadly many of children who live on the streets of Cochabamba are addicted to glue sniffing and other drugs. The children who are sent out to work on the streets by their parents often end up associating with these children, start sniffing glue themselves and as a result end up living on the streets. The working girl centre therefore is vital as it helps to support and encourage young girls towards education and away from drugs and all its associations.

The Motivation Centre: (Laura and Amil)

The motivation centre works with girls who actually are living on the streets at the present. Laura and Amil will be going out with people from the centre to meet the girls on the streets, motivate and build relationships with them and encourage them to come back to the centre. The centre provides facilities for them to clean themselves, wash their clothes and take part in various workshops.

If you have a moment we would recommend having a look at this video. It gives a clear picture of the struggles street children in Bolivia are facing.

Children become street children when the street becomes their mother.

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3/5 women in Bolivia have been sexually abused – 97% of which have not been announced.

TEAM OESER:

Preye, Amy, Vicky (Team Leader), Vanessa, Laeticia, Alex.

OESER is an organisation that provides education to disadvantaged children who live in and around the city of Cochabamba. Some of the children OESER works with come from the Cochabamba prison. By including them in lessons OESER hopes to help them experience life outside of the prison and integrate them into society. An important part of Bolivian culture is belonging to a group. Whether it is a friendship group or family group, inclusion is essential for success.  By allowing these children to build relationships with others from outside the prison, it means they will be able to forge strong friendships in the future.  The team will be assisting with the teaching of lessons in many areas such as English and Physical Education. We will also be running youth clubs which provide a safe and secure environment for local children to have fun and make friends. The team will teach both the children and local volunteers new skills and activities with the hope that, once our 10 weeks is up, we will have made a positive impact on the running of OESER and the lives of the children who attend.

Another massive part of our work out here will be with an HIV/AIDS project that raises awareness and educates locals. Amongst other things, we will be handing out leaflets and running workshops for young people in the community.

We are only the second ICS team to work OESER so there are still a lot of relationships to be formed between ICS team members, Tearfund and OESER. We are really looking forward to developing these further.  

'Traffic lights are more of a suggestion in Bolivia'

The past two weeks have absolutely flown by.  We have settled into our apartment and are loving everything about Bolivia so far. Cochabamba is known as ‘the city of eternal spring’ and it has been clear skies and warms days since we arrived; a welcome change from the chilly UK!

The first few days of the placement were spent becoming acquainted with the city, culture and our new home to get a better idea of where we will be working over the next few weeks. We were struck by the dramatic contrast between the richer northern and poorer southern areas of the city. Poverty in the south is a real problem with hundreds of children and adults living on the streets.

On Saturday we visited the Christo de la Concordia, the monumental statue of Jesus set to the east of Cochabamba. Built by the Bolivians to compete with the famous statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro it stands at 40m making it the tallest statue in South America (if you include the pedestal). We caught one of three cable cars up to the Christo, and as we rose the scenery got more and more spectacular. Those brave enough to tackle the steps inside the statue enjoyed breath taking views of the city through the statue’s many peep holes.

Christo de la Concordia

Sunday was Pedestrian Day and between 9am and 6pm cars were banned from the streets of Cochabamba creating a tranquil oasis. In Bolivia, church is cancelled for any big holiday (including Christmas and Easter) so we spent the day exploring beautiful ‘Parque Lincoln’ in the sunshine.

Our first full week has been spent in Spanish, culture and orientation classes. It has been incredible to see how everyone’s Spanish has improved in the space of a week in a country where very few people speak English. The Bolivian culture classes have been crucial in teaching us to adjust our behaviour accordingly to local cultural norms. As a particularly lively and loud group, we have had to reduce excessive noise or flamboyant behaviour when out in public as this is seen as arrogant and rude.  During the training we have also learnt more about the projects we will be working with. 

We are itching to get started with the projects now. This next week we will be visiting the project sites and getting to know the staff before we start our voluntary work full time next week.

The whole city had a power cut

The Apartment

Sunset in Cochabamba

Our 'Guard' Dog Samson!

Spanish School!!!

The adventure begins

So here we go, the beginning of our big adventure...

We arrived in Cochabamba last night after a gruelling 30 hour journey which included 4 flights, 5 airports, 1 lost passport, countless questionable plane meals and possibly best of all 1 team of Braziallian international footballers. 

The group is getting on brilliantly and we are settling into out beautiful apartment. The 12 of us are living together in the North West of the city, from which the views are spectacular. The city is surrounded with lush green mountains, and I can see Cochabamba's rival to the Rio's Jesus statue from where I am sat now. 

Today is a day to chill and to aclimatize to the altitude and jet lag. Our body clocks are all over place; with half of us waking up at a crazy hour this morning and some still sleeping now. We are still not too sure of what the set up will be in terms of our projects, but training over the next few days should clear that up in no time. 

We are so excited about the next few days of exploring the city and learning more about this beautiful country. 

Here are a few snaps from our journey.

Team Mosoj Yan (Minus Hayley) before the first flight

A quick trip into Brazil - Hello Sao Paulo

First glance at Cochabamaba from the plane

View from our balcony.

Prayer Request: A couple of the team have been struck with altitude sickness, please pray that they will recover quickly. We will also be starting Spanish lessons on Monday, we ask that God will help us to learn quickly and develop the skills to communicate with the people on our projects.