St Bernadette's Remedial School

30.04.2010

Although Joel was 18 when he started in the school he wasn’t able to hold a pencil. He would speak to nobody and was always bad tempered, but over the weeks and months he started to come out of his shell, to be more communicative and friendly with the other children, and little by little he started learning.

Joel’s story

His mother told us his story. “My son Joel was a normal child who ran about and played happily with his friends, until the age of three when he came down with meningitis. He went into convulsions and when I went to ask some of the neighbours for a lift to the hospital nobody was interested and told me to forget about it.

I eventually received a lift, but at this stage he was foaming at the mouth. In the hospital they gave him oxygen but he stayed rigid until little by little he started to respond. When he finally recognized me he smiled.”

“After a month in hospital he was allowed home, but he had become like a baby again, neither walking nor talking. I had to take him for rehabilitation and buy medicines, but soon after my daughter was born I couldn’t keep up the payments for the treatment. His father and brothers took no interest in him, and I had to work to keep the family, so Joel was never sent to school and stayed at home selling alfalfa outside the front door.”

The beginning of hope

“One day Elsa of St Bernadette’s Children’s Centre passed by and said to me that I could send Joel to St Bernadette’s Remedial School which is just in front of our house. So, Joel started and soon I was amazed at what he was able to do in the workshops. He has little movement in his hands, walks with difficulty and talks little, but the change that came over him was unbelievable in such a short space of time. He would bring things home that he had made, which I thought would have been impossible for him to do.”

“I was always worried about what would happen to Joel when I died, but now I have greater hope for him. I will put a little kiosk outside the house where he can sell the things that he makes and that will keep him going.

I am very grateful to Elsa for offering Joel a place in the school and to all the teachers who have such patience with him.”

An oasis in the desert

If ever there was an oasis in this barren and dusty area of Lima it would be the St Bernadette’s Remedial School with its gardens and farm animals roaming freely in the grounds. It looks more like a recreational park than a school which is why the children who once hated the thought of going to school love coming to us.

It is a different experience which allows them to enjoy the work, and therefore, overcome their difficulties. There is space for around 80 children who are grouped together according to their difficulties rather than age or level. They also have individual sessions with the psychologists as the block to their learning is often emotional.

The idea came about through our work with children who live in poverty. We observed the difficulties they have to confront in their daily lives. Many suffer from indifference and neglect which often results in their being below the level of normal development for their age.

These children often fall asleep during class as many have to work at night selling sweets on the buses and have no energy for school. Others suffer from inadequate nutrition, family violence and breakup, which traumatises them and can cause a huge emotional block to their learning.

We decided to try and help these children overcome their emotional and learning difficulties through starting up a study programme with a psychological input in the Centre. This was very successful, although we didn’t have near enough space to develop the project further.

Eighty percent succeed

We have agreements with 12 of the local schools who send us the children they encounter with learning problems, and who stay with us for a year. Those who successfully overcome their difficulties, generally about 80%, will return to their school of origin. The rest will remain with us in order to learn trades and other skills in the workshops:  shoemaking, ceramics, costume jewellery, while also attempting to finish their primary school studies.

These children are now happy in their efforts to overcome their deficiencies in learning as they steadily grow in confidence, and in their new-found self-esteem. It’s important for us to keep the children as the focus of our work as we try to identify their individual needs, rather than having them adapt to a set method dictated to them by the institution. But with this openness to learn from the children I feel we will have something worthwhile to offer society and a model for others to follow.

Meanwhile, children and young people like Joel have been rescued from their abandonment and are now happy to be learning.

Fr Tony Coney has served in Peru since 1995. You can visit his website at www.casadelnino.com.pe

Read more articles from the May 2010 issue