a little of this, a little of that

The social work team, Erin and I, have been very busy during our month in Quito. We have been multitaskers extraordinaire, juggling our time between several different projects. Our primary project has been to furnish and buy a full supply of books for a library at the local primary school in San Martín and also to buy books for the Fundación San Martín tutoring site. While these sound like fairly straightforward tasks, they were actually quite challenging. Our bookshelves, tables, and benches had to be commissioned from a local carpenter. Gaining an assessment of what types of books are needed and then locating those books in Quito was time consuming, especially because the need for books is so great, and locating appropriate, educational, and affordable books in the city is not easy. However, we are happy to report that the library and foundation together will receive over 300 brand new books. These include fairy tales and fables (favorites of the children), encyclopedias, dictionaries, and countless stories and children´s literature books. At the school this year, all of the children will have a 1-hour period of library time every day, which they have never had before, and this time will be devoted to class literacy instruction and pleasure reading. We are very excited to make our official delivery of the books on Monday, and we will post pictures of the finished product! Special thanks to the July tutors, who were very helpful during several whole nights of coding, stamping, and covering all of these books!

Our second major project has been working with the public health students and then with Adriana after their departure to implement nutrition classes for mothers from the community of San Martín. We hold class every Thursday and Friday afternoon from 2:00-3:30pm. To prepare for class each week, we pick a theme (so far each day has featured a different nutritious vegetable), research nutritional benefits of this food, go grocery shopping for ingredients, and prepare several tasty recipes featuring this food. In class, we review the nutritional benefits, facilitate a discussion with the women on how they already use this food, and then present our new recipe ideas. The overarching goal for these classes is to form a cohesive group of women who are invested in the idea of bringing more accessible, nutritious food to their community. We hope that this group will form the basis for a produce market, to begin next summer. After only 3 weeks, I am already seeing seeds of community-building growing in our group of women. Where at first they were shy and hesitant to talk, now they have open discussions about what their children (and husbands!) will and will not eat, where to find the cheapest and best ingredients, and how to make a small budget stretch its furthest. They laugh and joke, and we are seeing them build cohesion. With our project budget, we have been able to purchase the appliances, tools, and ingredients Adriana will use to continue these classes every week throughout the next year.

Finally, Erin and I have been putting our social work training to work by taking ¨referrals¨ from both the clinic and the tutoring site. The students and doctors at the clinic had several patients report psychological or psychosomatic complaints, and we have been able to schedule meetings to initiate a therapeutic relationship with these patients. Their struggles range from grief, to depression, to children´s behavioral problems, to spousal conflicts, and beyond. We have met several times with the clients, gathered background and intake information, and told them about the help that the Foundation can offer. When we leave, Adriana will continue weekly meetings with these clients. It is obvious that mental health care is an extreme need here, and there are no resources for obtaining it here, so we are glad to have been able to offer our time while we are here. Similarly, there are some children at the tutoring site who benefit from one-on-one work time for one reason or another. We have spent most of our mornings working individually with these children, learning how to follow the rules, talking about problems happening at home, or working on a school subject that is particularly difficult for them. Working with clients and in one-on-ones with the kids has been incredibly rewarding, especially when we have seen improvements literally happening before our eyes.

So that, in a nutshell, has been the work of the social work team this month. We have been very busy, but we have enjoyed each of our projects. Look for library pictures to be posted soon!