Club CODENI

This past semester we began a new activity in CODENI, which our children and teens decided to call “Club CODENI.” At the end of each month, educators get together with the children and adolescents to whom they are assigned to reflect on a specific topic. The objective of this new activity is to strengthen relationships between educators and youth, and develop a sense of belonging and identity within the CODENI community.

The sessions have focused on topics such as the importance of self-confidence to reach one’s goals, the right to be treated well and the right to education. Different rights have been addressed with a series of stories published by the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (CONAPRED) called “Kipalta”. The stories’ main character is a little girl who sells candy and does not go to school. CODENI youth have been able to relate to the stories and have generated interesting reflections regarding the rights of children in street situations.

In June’s session of Club CODENI we evaluated this new space. The children and adolescents said they enjoy the club because it allows them to share feelings and ideas on a more personal level and that they have more confidence with their educators. They proposed more regular sessions for the club and the opportunity to spend time with educators outside of Casa CODENI.

A more humane world

My name is Mariana, and I have been a volunteer at CODENI for the past year, convinced that education is an art that paints itself on a canvas where a reality that favours the most vulnerable is invented. I wrote this poem about justice and freedom.

My day starts with a cup of coffee, preparing everything to leave for the bus stop and take the #629, passing by Avenue Chapultepec, touring Pedro Moreno until it stops on the corner of Cruz Verde Street, where you will find Casa CODENI. Inside which, you will find the mairos who always welcome you with a friendly hello, and the children and adolescents each with their story to tell, filled with contrasts, adverse realities against the hope of dreams waiting to be fulfilled, and barriers preventing them from living in a better situation.

When I am in front of one of these children, I only have one idea in my head, “you have in front of you a person with a right and sufficient decorum to be more.” What I want to say is they should learn to write their own lives; my feeling is not pity but hope.

The experience of being a volunteer at CODENI is accompanied with the dream that a more humane world is possible.