A new project!

Crecer con Amor was really too far away for to go there 4 times a week, so I talked with Mercedes at the Help Argentina main office and she looked for a new volunteer placement for me. She got in contact with ALPI, a rehabilitation center for physically handicapped people. ALPI was started for patients dealing with polio and has now opened up to handicapped people with other physical limitations, either caused by accidents or diseases that have caused limited mobility. ALPI is located in Palermo which is where I live, and is about a 20 minute walk from my apartment.

I visited ALPI yesterday with Jon Teel, the on-site volunteer coordinator for Help Argentina. We talked with the lead coordinators of the education department at ALPI. I will be teaching English as a Second Language to some of the patients at ALPI. I will be working with Doctor Graciela Scavone to plan my lessons. No one knows about this class yet at the center, so during the weekend, they will get the word out about the class, and by Tuesday we will know how much interest there is in learning English as a Second Language at the center. Some patients also take computer classes, and other classes at the center.

Help Argentina hasn´t sent any volunteers to ALPI for awhile because when they were interested in help from volunteers, there weren´t enough volunteers to send there. Right now, I am the only volunteer from Help Argentina that is working at ALPI. I am going back to ALPI on Tuesday, to work on my lesson plans and on Thursday I will begin teaching. I am very excited about this project because I will get to teach ESL in a setting where I really think I can make a difference.