ARTS AND ACTION
VOLUNTEERS INITIATIVES
SON VISIBLES
The " Son Visibles " project is a group of volunteers of the Foundation Cume take to the streets of the city of Vigo to distribute hot coffee, snacks and talk with homeless people in the city.
LA ESCUELITA
What do we do: tutoring for immigrant children. The volunteers help them to do their homework and help them with the exams. We have children of very different cultures, religions and countries. Nowadays we have 19 children at classes. 2 hours 2 days a week. It includes games and free time activities.
INTEGRATED KITCHEN
The Solar Project is a training, customized and integrated high performance program for youth. Among its objectives are to promote coexistence and participation in social life, with respect for plurality and training for the exercise of professional activities, promoting teamwork and solidarity.
One of its activities has been to organize a cooking competition in the city of Vigo in which children participated with different abilities.
Testimonials
I go out twice a month at night to distribute hot coffee and food to homeless people in my city. The first day was a little uneasy. I had never done this kind of volunteer and did not know how these people would react when an unknown as I approached them. But the experience has been great. All have been very grateful and eager to convesar and share your story. No doubt I will continue going. I would come to understand why we look the other way and acquiesce it happen. Begoña Cameán. Spain
Testimony of a volunteer with refugees
The same day they arrived boxes Cume Foundation from Vigo went to Dobova, the refugee center in Slovenia. We organized and on a rainy January day, with little visibility, we drove to Dobova, where we saw live and live large white tents sheltering refugee families for a few hours. There we signed up as volunteers and told us where we could distribute backpacks ... When opening the boxes we were excited with the amount of backpacks and contents: chocolates, school supplies, everything quality! The ordain and distribute to distribute them most effectively. Before us, marched refugees from Syria, Iraq, Iran ... and families with small children or young adults, with tired faces, but relieved to spend another border to their destination: Germany, Sweden, etc.
In contrast to the harsh circumstances of refugees we have touched the generosity of so many individuals and families through Cume Foundation have wanted to contribute their bit for these families; still we remember the joy of a Syrian family with several children whom we gave a backpack that came with a handwritten label that read: "Alex fondly." Belén Barragán
Social exclusion in UK
In the UK, there are various forms of social exclusion, mainly concentrated within groups such as the unemployed, elderly, immigrants, and more general groups encompassing these, such as those living in poverty.
Unemployment, although slowly decreasing in the UK, is still a major issue. It often occurs within households already on low wages, and can be caused by other catalysts for social exclusion, such as disability, ill health, lack of educational attainment and poor social skills. It can also have a knock on effect in terms of other factors that can cause social exclusion, such as homelessness, health, crime, and drugs and alcohol abuse. Unemployment can often lead to social exclusion for many reasons- one of these is that without a steady source of income, an individual or family can easily fall into poverty. This ultimately causes social exclusion as it means that there is less opportunity to interact with other people, as activities are limited because of a lack of income. For example, those who are unemployed may not be able to go out with friends as a meal or outing is too expensive. They may be too embarrassed to explain their situation and so are therefore socially excluded from others around them due to unemployment. It is obvious that this is a major issue within the UK and one that needs to be addressed more frequently, which is something that young people are striving to achieve.
The elderly are another group who are often socially excluded. The main reason for this is that they can become isolated due to disability, poverty, or simply a lack of friends and family to visit them on a regular basis. For example, many may suggest that the elderly should join clubs or activities that take place in their local area. However, this may require public transport, which the individual cannot use without help, due to disability or frailness. The club may also cost money, which many of the elderly cannot afford due to lack of income and/or a low pension. Without any idea of how to obtain help from their community, it is possible for many old people to become socially excluded. Again, this is is a significant problem in the UK, which many young people are working to tackle and reduce by offering help and support to individuals in their later years, in whatever form that may be.
Another steadily growing group of who can become socially isolated are immigrants, who, although bringing new cultures and skills to the UK, can often become isolated from society. The most obvious reason for this is because of language or cultural barriers, which can make it difficult for many individuals to obtain jobs upon arrival in the UK. This can lead to unemployment and therefore poverty, which, as shown previously, can easily cause social exclusion. This can be particularly difficult for families with children or young people, for whom social exclusion can take the form of isolation from their classmates or even bullying. Language barriers can make it difficult for the children or young people to explain these issues to their parents or teachers, therefore creating a cycle which can be hard to break. This is a particularly important issue to many young people, who are focused on making immigrants, especially those from war torn countries, feel safe and welcomed in the UK through providing them with opportunities to socialise and speak freely about any problems they are facing in their new environment. Written by Miriam Gallacher
VOLUNTEERING -CONNECT GENERATIONS
This is a project whose aim is to bring together two generations - the elderly with young people - teenagers, students. Telling their life stories by older people - young people can learn from them about the history of their own country, to learn patience, the art of listening. Older people can share their experience, wisdom and at the same time they learn to understand young people and their world.
LETS MEET TOGETHER IN BURSZTYN!
The project aimed at organizing meetings of young people in the Cultural Center Bursztyn, outside the world of the Internet. The theme of the meetings and workshops is culture of various countries of the world. Together young people prepare dishes from a particular country and share knowledge about these countries.
BE PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE
This series of workshops aims to help young people prepare now to face the challenges of finding work. In their future work not only knowledge matters, but also the competence related to eg. interpersonal communication, the ability to self-presentation, group work, time planning etc.
Martin Buber said: "All actual life is encounter". Being a volunteer is a great opportunity to experience the truth of these words. There are peopole who are lonely, who are deprived "actual life". Some of them live in retirement homes and don't have any families or friends. I've visited one of the institutions as a volunteer to spend some time with them. In the retiremetn home you can meet very different people - people suffering from dementia and those with clear minds and a lot of interesting stories to tell. All of these encounters give you something good, new views and perspectives. What you will never forget is a kindness and gratitude of the elderly. Aleksandra Bańcarz ( Poland)
PURLEY
During the preparation sessions for the trip to Poland, we made a few visits to the Purley Nursing Home, a care home in Purley. This was a very good experience for the girls since some of them had not done this before. We had planned to visit a Care Home in Crakow and we wanted the girls to "practise". Meeting elderly people who are not known and who look and are very vulnerable is not easy for the first time and even less in Poland where we would not have a common language. So, we thought we would prepare by visiting the local nursing home.
In one of this visits, we spoke to Colwyn, who is paralised from the neck down and threfore only able to move his head. We told him about our plans for the trip: the places we would be visiting in Cracow and how much we were looking forward to meeting hundreds of young people from all over the world who would be attending the same youth event. He followed everything with great interest, and we promised we would return to visit him after the summer to tell him all about the trip. Colwyn is able to do very little and he is alert and bright so it was obvious that hearing about the trip gave him food for thought.
There were a total of 18 girls who prepared for the trip to Poland, among other ways, by visiting the elderly and the infirm. Both the girls and those visited benefitted enourmously from each other.
