Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice Project, in May 2018 undergraduate student Grace Koehl interviewed, Cristina Caravello, a member of the Pedro Arrupe Volunteer program at Entreculturas. In this interview, Caravello discusses her time as an international volunteer in Kenya and continued engagement with Entreculturas after returning to Spain.
Can you tell me a little about your role here at Entreculturas?
I was an international volunteer with Entreculturas for one year in Kenya through a program called VOLPA (Pedro Arrupe Volunteers). I completed one year of pre-volunteer training in Spain and one year of volunteering in Kenya. Now I am working on my post-volunteer experience.
What was your experience abroad like in the VOLPA program?
My background is as a teacher and I got my master’s [degree] in secondary education. While I was in Kenya, I got involved in the Upendo project, which is an education program for orphans and vulnerable children in the Kangemi slum. The Jesuits have a parish in Kangemi that works on different projects such as a program against AIDS, a technical school, a medical center, a women’s empowerment program and sewing business, a primary school, and a variety of other things. In the Upendo program, I did administrative support which entailed writing reports and creating proposals. I also assisted the social worker in visiting families and helped with tasks to support our students like hygiene and nutrition programming.
Additionally, I was involved in an Entreculturas project called Entrescuelas, which is all about connecting young people in two schools in two different parts of the world to create horizontal relations. The students are able to share their experiences about different themes. Through this, the students are able to get to know each other and create some interesting relationships.
How did you decide to do the program?
It’s difficult to identify just one reason because there are many things that can bring you to the decision to go for such a long time and so far away. For me personally, I’ve always had examples in my surroundings, even in my family, of people who have dedicated their time to some sort of volunteering like this. What got my attention at first was that I was volunteering in Madrid with undocumented immigrants. Of course, I thought a lot about it because I moved to Spain from Italy when I was 14 years old. My arrival in Spain was very different than that of a lot of other people, simply because I come from a European Union country. So I was pondering how people leave behind their families and their entire lives to enter a society that is completely different from their own and the difficulties that these people must have.
I was doing an internship at the Padre Piquer Institute, which is a secondary school that has a transition class where students arriving from other countries attend Spanish classes for 9 to 12 months before entering high school. This experience affected me deeply. I later had the idea to direct my professional life towards this sort of work in teaching and accompanying foreign students. I decided to go and experience this for my own self but the inverse, and I did this through VOLPA. And, above all, I wanted to intimately know another reality different from my own. There was also an element of faith that drew my attention. In reality, I wanted to see what was important to me, form my values, and from there, guide my professional life, my personal life, and my future.
Can you speak a little more to the impact that faith had on your decision to participate in VOLPA?
I think that sometimes we exaggerate the notion of being a Christian, of Christian values, and of living a lifestyle consistent with our faith. If you believe in certain things, you should put them into practice. And I wanted to be of service to others personally but also on a professional level as much as I could. The education that I received was because my parents made it possible and because I just happened to be born in this part of the world. I wanted to make it possible for others to have these experiences as well because they have so much meaning for me and really confirm who I am as a person.
Do you think that people who have received a quality education have an obligation to do service?
Yes. I believe that we have to refine that idea a little because you can’t obligate people to make the decision to do service and to give back what they’ve received. But I think that when what you’ve gotten in your life is so enormous and has such an impact on your life, the desire to share it will come.
Coming back to these themes of beliefs and faith, do you think that your faith affected your experience abroad?
Yes, totally. For me, my faith was important because it supported me. This is something that has now been applied to my daily life as well. My faith keeps supporting me even now. It helped me to center myself when things got tough or when the situation was heavy. For example, it’s a unique experience when the focus is placed on you as the only white person. Everyone wants to meet you and talk with you because you’re a foreigner. I also experienced chauvinism and difficulties overcoming communication barriers at work. It’s hard! It’s a huge culture shock. So, when I needed to reconnect a little with my reasons for doing VOLPA, my faith gave meaning to my experiences.
Do you think that you experienced personal growth or change through your experience?
I really like a phrase, which is “I am questioning everything by my role as a volunteer.” I was questioning myself a lot. I questioned if international cooperation was doing more harm than good, and I questioned my presence in Kenya. However, it was so wonderful to go with all these questions because the experience of living in Africa does not allow you to remain indifferent. I truly think that if you live consciously during your experience abroad, not a single thing you encounter lets you remain indifferent. Now I am in the process of seeing the fruits of this experience and everything I felt, lived, observed, and touched. I am filtering these experiences a little from the point of view of my daily life here in Spain. It’s curious because, just like while I was in Kenya, I am now observing so many changes in myself.
Can you describe the pre-volunteering formation that you received?
Like I said, I was doing pre-travel formation for a year. We would meet once every two weeks, and the material was split into three themes. The first block is about personal motivations that have led you to make the decision to go. Within this block, there is a little about how you are able to interact with and relate to people around you. The second block is more about specific themes. For example, we discussed gender, how to write about development and cooperation, economic inequality, and different points of view. It’s like a snapshot of what awaits you. The third block is about encounter. The idea is that, through this process, you go along learning about yourself and preparing so that you know how to orient yourself while you’re abroad. You have monthly meetings with someone who accompanies you throughout the entire process. This person gets to know you very well, helps you to challenge yourself, makes you reflect on the process, and supports you when you need it.
What was the role of reflection in this entire VOLPA process?
I think reflection has been absolutely [critical]. For me, the pre-travel reflection was very important to learn about my motivations and identity. It’s fundamental so that later, once you return to Spain, the experience has significance in your life. Even now, I’m continuing to reflect and digest the experience.
Can you tell me about a specific moment that the VOLPA experience caused change in your life?
For example, my mother is very afraid of Africa. She’s not racist, but she is afraid for things that are far away or unknown. Before I went, she made it very clear that she didn’t want me to go and that she wasn’t totally okay with my decision. She respected the fact that it was my decision, but she didn’t agree. I noticed that while I was in Kenya and I would tell her stories, she would always ask me a lot of questions and get excited about things. She was getting closer to this other reality through my experience. Now she’s started to take action, including collecting money for the project and trying to plan a trip to visit and see what my life was like there. I would consider this a big change. It’s extra special for me because the change occurred within my own family.
Can you explain why you decided to keep working with Entreculturas after your VOLPA experience?
While I was in Africa, something very impactful for me was to see the way that different NGOs work because it really turns into a business. This really does more harm than good for the local people because it creates this idea of an international volunteer or an international organization that creates more distance. What saved me was to say, “I am here with Entreculturas.” Entreculturas has a way of working that is very unique. All of my higher-ups there were African. I knew perfectly well that I was the stranger and the extra member of the team. So, if Entreculturas promotes this model, I think that it motivates me to keep working with them because this cooperation seems essential to me. But the cooperation must be with a horizontal model.
At the same time, one of the things that I learned during my VOLPA experience was that I want to work with organizations that are consistent with my own personal values. Entreculturas is just that. Thanks in part to my work in Kenya, the children that I met in Kangemi have received I don’t know how many opportunities to continue their education. That also motivates me and fills me with joy.
