Berkley Center

Background: As part of the Education and Global Social Justice Project, in May 2012 undergraduate student Charlotte Markson interviewed Any Berezan, principal of Don Bosco School (Obra Social y Educativa Don Bosco) in Montevideo, Uruguay, a school affiliated with Fe y Alegría. In this interview Berezan discusses the importance of meeting physical needs so that students are better prepared to learn, Fe y Alegría's role in facilitating teacher training and gathering financial support, and how technology has affected the way the school operates.

Can you tell me about yourself and how you came to work in education?

I have worked in both public and private education for the past 42 years. Four years ago I retired from public education and chose to work only in this institution, where I could combine my Christian beliefs and education.

In this country, religion belongs in a person’s private life. It is a very secular country, so secular that no religion is at all present in public institutions.

I love working in education and being able to give children something they need for life—the ability to read and write. In addition, it is important to instill in them a sense of purpose in their life. I have always worked with the poorest among our population, which live in what we call the “zones of critical context.”

This school was built and maintained for many years by the Salesians. Originally there were 90 students in this building, which can hold up to 800 students. Today we have 441 students. It was a challenge to expand this much because the school receives absolutely no government support. The school is public in the sense that anyone can attend it, but they have to pay some amount of tuition. So, it is a private school in the administrative sense, and a public school in terms of its openness.

Can you tell me about specific needs that children have who come from the “critical contexts”?

We are located in the suburban part of Montevideo, where there are two big slums from which most of our students come. Children who live here lack many material things and live in a state of insecurity. Oftentimes siblings have to take turns leaving the house in order to protect it from getting looted. At the school we try to cover the children’s basic needs. The first of all this entails nutrition. We receive children as of the age of 3 years old here, and in this area many children do not grow and develop as they should. During pregnancy and their first three years of life the children are lacking important nutrients in their diet. So, we make sure the children eat breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack here once they start attending the school.

We also try and provide the children with a comfortable and friendly environment. This building has grown over time but was never completely finished, so it lacks complete bathrooms, etc. But we try to provide whatever we can in a dignified manner.

In addition we try and address the issue of clothing. The children here all wear the same uniform. The idea behind this is that they all wear their names on their shirts and have something they need to take care of. Two mothers are in charge of ordering and making the uniforms, and the families, even if it takes them all year, have to pay for it in some way. It has been my experience that giving away things as gifts is not possible. People value things more when they have bought them.

Once the basic needs are covered we also try to provide them with a type of education that comes from the heart. When I arrived here I didn’t know anything about Don Bosco, but I quickly fell in love with his approach to working with children and his emphasis on joy. And when Fe y Alegría approached us, its leading motives being faith and joy, I was sure we would be able to work well together.

In this school the children feel loved, but they are also provided limits. We want to give them the opportunity to achieve, with what they have and where they are, anything they aspire to, through studying and working consistently.

The children here are very affectionate, even though they come from very difficult backgrounds. Many children live in a reality of domestic violence or one-parent households; we even have children who were born with an addiction to narcotics due to their mothers’ consumption of drugs, and children that were sexually abused by family members.

But it is my conviction that you will not notice this when walking the halls of this school. When foundations come to visit I tell them not to look for the typical images of poor children that are used for advertisements and campaigns. I respect the students too much to sell them as poster children for poverty. One can live with dignity in poverty too.

Can you tell me about the structure of this institution?

At the primary school level we have the same structure as public schools. Primary school ends after sixth grade, and the average student is 12 years old at that time. In our school some children are 16 years old when they complete their primary education. We do not force them to leave earlier, because we know that if they do they will end up on the street. So, if they repeat a grade, it is a way of keeping them in the system and with us, who can at least accompany and guide them in the difficult ages when they start to become aware of their intellectual capabilities and the reality they live in.

During the formal morning education we also teach theology and music. At noon the children eat lunch, and then we help them create healthy habits such as brushing their teeth. There are many children who do not have running water in their homes. That is the case in many of the non-established slums; the inhabitants do not always have access to water and electricity.

In the afternoon the students rest a bit and then start the part of the day dedicated to non-formal education. This includes schoolwork support. The children do homework, or if an individual child is struggling with a subject a coordinator will work on the material with it for 20 or 30 minutes, as long as it can concentrate. We also teach our students good learning strategies, such as how to use the internet in order to study. In addition the students are offered workshops such as cooking, computer studies, gardening, etc.

In the realm of computer science this school is taking part in the government-sponsored Plan Ceibal computer project [“one laptop for every child”]. We do not give every one of our students a laptop, because private schools have to pay for them themselves. So together with all the students’ parents we have bought 30 computers and made a Ceibal classroom for everyone to use.

Another afternoon activity is the preparation to receive the Catholic sacraments. This school is public in terms of who can attend, but its conception is Catholic and the education here has a Christian character. However, receiving the sacraments is not obligatory. Usually the majority of children take part, but we have to work a lot with the families. Some families do not accompany their children in this journey, and so the children pick someone from the school’s faculty or staff to be their godparent.

There are also many children who do not profess the Catholic faith.

Can you tell me about how you started working with Fe y Alegría?

Fe y Alegría came to Uruguay by way of the Jesuit community and started presenting itself to various educational institutions. When they came here I told them about my concerns about the youth in this area. Our students were coming here every day, even after they had graduated from the sixth grade, because their teacher in secondary school had not come to class, classes were cancelled, or they were in need of school materials. Many of them also came because they had nothing to eat, and secondary school does not provide meals to their students. I had outlined this to a foundation which supports students, and they had asked me to conduct studies and draw up a report in order for them to take action. In my position I had neither the time nor the means to do so. So, when Fe y Alegría came here, they offered to do exactly this work for us. So, we became the first educational institution in Uruguay to open its doors to Fe y Alegría.

Tell me about non-formal education for youth.

In order to achieve anything in this country you need to have completed the third year of secondary school, regardless of how bad the education is. Our programs aim to keep youth, both former students and other children from the neighborhood, in the formal system and prevent them from dropping out or having to repeat a grade so they can be as successful as possible. This is the third year we are offering this service, and we have not had any students drop out or have to repeat a grade.

So the goal in working with the youth is to support them within their public school education?

Exactly. There is hope to make this a formal secondary school as well within the next years. I am not sure yet whether it should be a traditional school or a school that also teaches certain trades. But the bottom line is that in this country you need three years of secondary education in order to be a street cleaner, and this is not meant to depreciate the work those people do. But what I am trying to say is that for even the simplest work the education requirements are very high.

Did you work in the non-formal programs with youth before Fe y Alegría was here?

No, we started working with Fe y Alegría three years ago.

So it is Fe y Alegría’s job to look for sponsors in order to run the programs you offer?

Yes. In addition Fe y Alegría helps us with the continuing education of our faculty. In this country all the courses that would be beneficial for faculty and that are offered by the Catholic University [of Uruguay] are impossible to afford, because they are oftentimes more expensive than an entire month’s salary. But thanks to Fe y Alegría we have been able to access those training courses. In all things that concern technology, computer science, and communication, the Catholic University has the best programs in the country. And right now we are working on helping the teachers apply the resources they have in the classroom, such as the XO computer [a durable laptop created for diverse educational settings]. Fe y Alegría assists us both through face-to-face seminars and virtual sessions. In the past years some faculty have created links to faculty in other Fe y Alegría schools in Venezuela, Colombia, and Bolivia, and worked on pressing issues in education. This year we are focusing on connecting everyone within this institution with each other.

How and when are the faculty trained?

Faculty training is not obligatory, but this is a difficult topic. The public schools in this district are rated as “schools in critical contexts.” Teachers who work in those schools have to attend training sessions on Saturdays. The amount of days they have to attend is not so much the problem. But since most teachers who teach here work in various different public schools, the task of coordinating a meeting that everyone can attend in this school is very difficult.

The non-formal education institutions do not have this problem, so the majority of centers that work with Fe y Alegría plan their meetings on Saturdays. That makes it very difficult for us to take part in the seminars offered by Fe y Alegría. In order to address this, Fe y Alegría has organized something very wise in my opinion: we had one formal meeting, which about 18 faculty and staff attended. This was evidence that people were indeed interested and invested in furthering their knowledge in classes they could otherwise not afford. But that was the only actual meeting. Afterwards, they formed a Facebook group for all members in which the exchange and training now continues. It is my responsibility to accompany our faculty in this training process and provide them with the time and space to work with someone who knows a lot about this topics and has a firm idea of education. We started this program two weeks ago.

Tell me about the XO computer and internet access.

The arrival of the XO computers in our school benefited the entire neighborhood, because it brought the internet to this area. Now, many public school students both from primary and secondary school come and sit outside the front steps of our schools because they are able to access the internet here.