How does it work?
Helping by educating
Our calendar:
The "Escolinha Itacoatiara" is located in the suburbs of Itacoatiara in Amazonia. Itacoatiara has 90.000 habitants and is located 240 km east of Manaus.
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Since September 2013 we offer a house to volunteer-teachers, so they can stay in this neighborhood and give lessons to children totally on their own responsibility.
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The house has a big classroom with teaching material, a dormitory, kitchen and bathroom.
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Volunteers at the Escolinha have to organize their lessons totally by yourselves, there is no one in Itacoatiara who can help you with that !!!
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Volunteers can try to teach some English or Spanish or do painting or whatever kind of music, art or sport. The children will get motivations that their parents can't give them.
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For young female volunteers that come alone in a time where no other volunteers are at the Escolinha the neighborhood and all the situation can be frightened and scary, at the weekend there can be very drunken people in the neighborhood. Also Donna Marias husband Poro is a lovely person, but if he is drunken he can be very annoying.
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​​Sandra, Switzerland Feb. 15
"I've never thought that such a simple project can have such an impact in children´s daily life. The fact that these children remember almost every name of the previous volunteers and what they learned with them shows how much influence they had. You might not see that on your first days because most of them are pretty shy. They never came up to me and told me that they like my lessons but they always ask for more:) They probably haven't understood what English is for and some stuff you need to explain over and over again but when you meet other children who aren't part of the escolinha, you will understand that "your" students at least have a bigger perspective about the world. With every volunteer they learn more about things which doesn't exist in their town/life. But the project is not only about giving...I guess I learned even more than the children. I learned so many simple things about nature, humanity – things we often forget in our « western » daily-life. People there know how to enjoy and appreciate life…and I had a hell of a time and that´s why I went back there which was already like coming home! Thank you Alex to make this possible and thanks to the lovely Family of Dona Maria in Itacoatiara."
