Background: As part of the Education and Global Social Justice Project, in June 2012 undergraduate student Charlotte Markson interviewed Markis, the coordinator of Our Place (Nuestro Lugar) Children’s Club in Montevideo, Uruguay. Markis is originally from Venezuela and moved to Uruguay several years ago. She had ties to Fe y Alegría before its founding in Uruguay, and she was among the first to start working with the network once it had established itself in Montevideo. In this interview Markis discusses the structure and goals of the center's programs, the difficult home life of many of the children, and the ways in which Fe y Alegría Uruguay has helped the center staff develop a more holistic perspective on their work.
Can you tell me about yourself and how you started working here?
I am Venezuelan and came to Uruguay in 2005. I am a social worker and have worked in education in Venezuela, Colombia, and a couple of other countries. I first came in contact with Fe y Alegría in Venezuela, where the organization originated.
I used to be a nun, and during this time I worked with Fe y Alegría. I left the congregation but was nonetheless present at the first discussion on whether or not having a Fe y Alegría in Uruguay would be possible.
When this center was starting to work with Fe y Alegría, it did not have a coordinator. So Fe y Alegría asked me if I would take charge of the center, and I accepted the offer. So, I have been working in social projects in Uruguay for the past five years, but I have been coordinating this center for the past two and a half years.
Can you tell me about the structure of this center?
The National Ministry for Children and Adolescents determines the number of children we are allowed to enroll in our program, and at the moment we have between 35 and 45 children. We have three groups, and each groups has about 15 children. The first and second, third and fourth, and fifth and sixth grade children are in groups together. Of course, sometimes an older child is placed in a younger group if it has certain difficulties that impede it from working with the older children. We divide the time into 45-minute workshops, all of which try to offer the children a comprehensive formation. Academic support is a workshop they have everyday. The children work with educators in order to complete their homework, and if they don’t have any homework they are given activities to work on which deal with academic challenges they face. We work closely with the schools and ask them to provide us information on which areas a child is particularly struggling in.
Aside from academic support we also have workshops in music, dance, arts and crafts, recreation, and basic English. The English classes are meant to familiarize the children with the language, so that when they get to high school it will not be a completely new subject for them. The teachers teach it as a fun class without exams, so the children do not perceive it as something difficult.
The objective of recess is to have children learn how to play together, because many of them find this very difficult. They struggle to follow rules, to lose in a game, and to play in a group. We have been working on this for the past two years, because [we] noticed that the children were being very individualistic in their play, and when they did play together they ended up fighting. I think soccer and the importance of winning and losing in this sport influences the children a lot, and it makes it hard for them to play without competing.
In the end, all the workshops are meant to make the children have a good time and remove them from the overly structured environment of school. We are aware that the children spent more than eight hours a day in this structure, and this is tiring and influences their behavior as well.
What are the biggest challenges you face in your work here?
One of our challenges is to adjust the dynamics of this children’s club to this space. You need a lot of space to run and play and the courtyard we have is very small, and there are a lot of children. But these circumstances also lead us to develop a new dynamic together and treat each other well. Our biggest challenge is to develop good forms of coexistence. A lot of the children here come from very complex situations—there is a lot of domestic violence and a lot of alcoholism. Many of the children yell when they are talking to us, because that is what they are accustomed to. So we need to sit them down and talk calmly to them, and this is very challenging.
When we meet as a team we discuss how we can make this a positive environment for the children, so that they can enjoy each other’s company and not mistreat each other, because so many of them are used to being mistreated in various surroundings.
Is there a lot of turnover in the staff that works here?
There is some staff that has been here for approximately two and a half years. But there is a constant movement of people coming and leaving. Many teachers leave because they get other offers that are better paid and in less challenging contexts. You have to love this place a lot and have to be very attached to these children in order to stay here, because it is work that takes a long time. Sometimes you feel like success is close; other times you have no idea where the progress went. So, it is not surprising that people look for work in easier conditions and that pays better.
How does the work with Fe y Alegría impact this center?
We have been helped a lot in working on the functionality of this center and the training of our educators. I don’t mean only academic training, but also a personal, humanistic training. In our team of teachers we completed a project in order to grow closer together and get to know each other better. We shared very personal things and reflected together. It was very positive that all the persons who work here agreed upon realizing this project. Especially in this country, which has such an anti-clerical and secular character, it is important to also preserve the spiritual.
The academic training we receive from Fe y Alegría has also helped us a lot. Fe y Alegría has given us more of a foundation and a vision of what we can achieve as educators and a center that works with this specific population.
What does Fe y Alegría mean to you?
I think Fe y Alegría has to do with growth, with progress both on a personal level and on the level of this center, and with the possibility of giving a person all the positive things they need with the right resources. Fe y Alegría leads to progress in the center and the surrounding community, and it contributes to the development of every person as a valuable human and a child of God. Fe y Alegría also brings this religious and spiritual dimension into its work, which sometimes one thinks is not there or one wants to ignore, but it is there.
Tell me about illiteracy in Uruguay.
If this children’s club did not exist, many of these children would be running around on the streets. The majority of these children grow up only with their mother because fathers are often absent, and the mothers have to work long hours.
When it comes to helping children with homework we have a rather absurd situation in this country. Uruguay has a rather high cultural level, but nonetheless there are many families who do not know how to read and write. We once had a surprising incident with a father of one of our students. This is a very hardworking man of little means, and one day he came to a meeting at the center and then almost immediately left again. We realized that it was because we were passing around a list of attendance, and the man could not read. Now, we no longer pass around a list because we know there are several parents and families who can’t read or write.
There are many adults who can’t read, but also a lot of adolescents. This has to do mainly with the fact that so many children drop out of school.