Every day, a row of little people toddle through the main PSE centre, slowly and with some missteps, on a journey that starts at the Social Service office and ends in the classrooms reserved for the Kindergarten subprogramme. They are the youngest of all the children of the summer programme. Watching them pass is a spectacle, one that makes you feel such happiness and adoration as you watch them walking one by one behind each other, holding a rope for safety. A site to remember!
In search of comforting arms
Every day, Kindergarden instructors become for more than forty children a big person to jump on, stumble on and hug whenever they feel like it. All babies and toddlers, aged 0 to 3, are taken care of by a team with tender and protective hands. Hands that provide them with food, hygiene, games and hugs when they need it most. Most of the children belong to the Khmer personnel of PSE, but some also come from nearby families.
A recent programme for recent births
Just two years ago, PSE management decided to reach out to the Khmer mothers who work in the NGO, and decided to create a summer subprogramme dedicated to helping them take care of their youngest. The Kindergarten programme didn´t start until 2017, when PSE found enough volunteers willing to spend four weeks with adorable toddlers.
Activities to awaken the senses
Apart from all the outdoor spaces available to the subprogramme: a football field and a patio, Kindergarden has three classrooms; one dedicated to feed the children, another one used for rest and the last one for games. Near the end of the day, the monitors shower the babies in a fourth room.
“The rest of the day is divided into different activities aimed at stimulating their creativity, promoting their sociability and working on decreasing hyperactivity” Marta, Kindergarten coordinator
Due to the disparity of ages, the monitors need to adapt the planned activities so that all of the children can enjoy them.
In addition, they carry out activities according to a theme that varies each week: the sea, colors, animals… The objective is for the children to play whilst learning at the same time.
Autonomy at its best
At breakfast time, you can start to outline diverse personalities. Some babies are extremely independent in the way they eat!
It is surprising to see how some of them, the very young ones, grasp the spoon firmly and fill it with rice before raising it slowly to their small mouths. Others need more time and require the help of one monitor who makes sure they eat properly.
Sometimes, it´s a difficulty for the monitors to remember the names of each child, so they resort to writing it on the babies´ hands, serving as a cheat sheet. In any case, they can get to know all the children so well without their names; solely with observation and time.
“She´s one of the most challenging girls, but at the same time she´s one of the happiest” Marin, volunteer for the Kindergarten subprogramme
As a extreme example, one girl who laughs and is always willing to play has a talent for slipping away from the monitors. “She is one of the most challenging girls, but at the same time she´s also the happiest” says Marin, one of the volunteers of this subprogram. “One thing makes up for the other,” he concludes.
The opposite case can be found into two twins, Veasna and Somnang, who, despite being siblings, are not usually together, although they do share their seriousness and reserve in dealing with other children. One of them, in fact, is passionate about being with Lay, one of the Khmer monitors, at all times and, clearly, gives priority to that over any other activity, as Marta, coordinator of this subprogramme comments while laughing.
The shortest heroes
Childhood is a vital phase marked by dependence and fragility, so these children prove to be superheroes and deserve the Superman or Batman printed on their clothing. Everyday, twice a day, they cross the stony road between Kindergarden and the Social Services office, which includes going up and down two flights of stairs leading to their classrooms. It is fun how each one of them faces this challenge: some insist on going up and down alone and others request help from the beginning.
The goal, in any case, is that these children continue to get in PSE the boost they need to fly without help soon, like real comic characters with the superpower of getting wherever they want.
The sponsor
PSE would like to thank IE University who provides economic support for this subprogramme.
A day at the camp
