Home away from home
03.03.2010
Fr Coney initiated the St Bernadette’s Children’s Centre in Lima, Peru.
The Children’s Centre is perched precariously on top of a hillside; the sound of children playing gives an inkling as to the purpose of the building. Walking up the steep, dusty hillside, passing houses made of wood and reed matting, the sound of musical instruments and the happy tones of laughter increase.
It’s their space
On reaching the top of the hill the children scurry past, all headed towards the Centre, where a warm welcome greets everyone that enters. Here the children experience the freedom to be children, and as a result, can joyfully participate in the many activities on offer. It’s their space.
It wasn’t long after I had arrived in the parish of Huandoy in 1995 that I met Christina who was then four years old. She lived in a small shack, on the side of Corn Hill, made of straw matting, cardboard, bits of wood and anything else that could be found to keep out the strong winds that often swept up from the coast.
The family, consisting of several brothers and sisters along with the mother, lived in one room that made up the shack, with several of them sharing the only bed. Despite the poverty of their situation Christina was a bright, happy child whose joy in life was contagious to all who had the good fortune to cross her path.
Many children lived in similar conditions as Christina and watching them play in the dirt, or minding younger siblings outdoors while waiting for the mother to return from work, I wondered what could be done in order to improve their situation and offer them better opportunities to develop.
Only for children
After several months I had a meeting with people who made up the local prayer group and we talked about the possibilities. Christina, true to nature, attended the meeting herself and was enthusiastic about the idea of opening a Centre solely for the participation of children.
As Providence would have it, there was a house for sale on the pinnacle of the hill which I was able to buy, close to Christina’s house.
I immediately started looking for funds to do the renovations necessary to receive the children. The months slipped by and I started to feel that the venture was a huge mistake until one Sunday I went to the Columban Central House to find a substantial cheque had arrived from my home parish of St Bernadette’s in Belfast.
The philosophy of the Centre
The Centre started off on a small scale with 70 children in attendance. Our philosophy, much influenced by A. S. Neill’s book Summerhill, was to allow the children the freedom of the Centre so that they could do exactly what they desired. They could grow in the way that they wanted, the only request being that they respect the freedom of the other children.
It was a huge success from the start. We tried to respond to the needs that the children expressed by opening up a library where they could do their homework, equipping play areas, providing workshops on music, dance, arts and crafts. There they could discover and develop their talents.
We even had a psychologist come in to help with personal problems the children, at times, were displaying.
Over the years we have been able to expand enormously with the help of many people and interested groups, to such an extent that today we have on average 600 children coming to
us daily.
Christina’s own
words
Christina has always been one of our more regular participants and possibly one day will work with us as some of the older children of the initial years are now doing. She would be ideal given her experience with us over the years and the desire she has to help others.
In her own words she writes, “At the beginning some of us went to the Centre for our lunch. I started in the area of the small children up to five years as I was only four then, and enjoyed playing on the swings and with the jigsaw puzzles. I had a lot of friends and felt content as we received a lot of affection and were all treated like one big happy family.”
“When I started school I went every day to the library where the staff helped me with my homework. They were very patient and I was able to carry on learning.
“At home though, I often felt lonely and sad because my parents were separated and my Mum had to go out to work. Even now at times I feel sad because I have to look after the smaller ones, and feel as if I’m the mother who has to do everything. In the Children’s Centre I can forget all my problems.”
Fr Tony Coney was ordained in 1995 and has served in Peru since then.
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