The CSP begins a new program for senior citizens in El Pesebre neighborhood of the Colombian capital
Last August we informed in this blog that the Community of St. Paul had started an after-school program for children in El Pesebre neighborhood in Bogotá. This program has a double goal: first, to help academically children aged 8 to 12 who need assistance with their studies; secondly, to offer them a safe environment where they can go in the afternoons and thus avoid that, by being on the street, they may fall into consumption of drugs. The project has been functioning with normality since its beginning. What we never expected was that such a program would be the trigger for another one: seeing that the parish facilities of the neighborhood opened several afternoons a week for the children, a few senior citizens came to us with a simple petition: «Can you teach us as well?»
It turns out that several grandparents in the district, who were born in rural provinces of the country and moved to Bogotá many decades ago, have had a long life of hard work and have never had the time to care for their intellectual formation. Some are illiterate, others know how to read and write, but barely, and do not have many knowledge of mathematics, history, geography…
We searched for a teacher from the same area willing to take on this task, and at the beginning of March we opened our new Educational Program for the Elderly. It operates every Saturday morning, and a dozen of grandmothers (they seem to be more interested than the men!) and one grandfather are already enrolled. They do not miss one class, are very attentive (in fact, they take their studies very seriously). For us it is a real joy to see them week after week, sitting in their desks and learning so many things that when they were children never had the opportunity to study.
It turns out that several grandparents in the district, who were born in rural provinces of the country and moved to Bogotá many decades ago, have had a long life of hard work and have never had the time to care for their intellectual formation. Some are illiterate, others know how to read and write, but barely, and do not have many knowledge of mathematics, history, geography…
We searched for a teacher from the same area willing to take on this task, and at the beginning of March we opened our new Educational Program for the Elderly. It operates every Saturday morning, and a dozen of grandmothers (they seem to be more interested than the men!) and one grandfather are already enrolled. They do not miss one class, are very attentive (in fact, they take their studies very seriously). For us it is a real joy to see them week after week, sitting in their desks and learning so many things that when they were children never had the opportunity to study.
