As somewhat previously discussed, this past summer I worked with Save the Children. I went with an organization called Rustic Pathways who run worldwide trips for teenagers to go on. Some of their trips are for students taking a gap year or just for enjoyment, while others are community service trips. Mine was a community service trip. On my trip, we went to an underprivileged town in South Carolina. Our trip consisted of around 15 students from all across the country. Kids were from New York, Virginia, South Carolina, and many other places. I went along with one of my best friends named Elena. Elena's mom was the one who found the program for us to go on, and I am so happy that she did because we both had a blast doing it together.
During our time there, we stayed in a little house and part of another larger building which was around 45 minutes away from the town we worked in. Three young adults who were in their twenties were the leaders of the trip and they made it a lot of fun. Every day from Monday thru Thursday(since the school can't afford to open Friday) we would travel to a school and help run a camp for students from a few different elementary schools. Save the Children first invited the students who are most behind in their education levels to come to camp and then opened it up to everyone else. In total they had about 100 students their the first few weeks but by the second half the numbers had dropped to around 50. This camp was free for all students, as expenses were all covered by Save the Children.
At the camp, we volunteers were assigned a class for the two weeks. Every day, we would have a schedule where we would have math classes, GIRP (independent reading), read aloud, LEGO's, and enrichment. In these classes we were able to help teach all of the students how to do math and how to read, as well as teach them one of our own hobbies that they did not know how to do. I learned very quickly that almost all of the kids were extremely behind for their age. Not only did I learn that, but I also learned how underprivileged these students are. I got to know them all so well that they opened up a lot. I found out that many are beaten by their parents and many live with their grandparents because their true parents are too young. On top of that, I experienced many going around during lunch and gathering extra food from all of the other children to put into their bags. When we asked the boy why he was doing this, he responded saying that that would be he and his brother's dinner for the night. As for all of the rest of the children, most had only about 2-3 pairs of clothing and only 1 pair of shoes. One little boy has to babysit his little 2 year old brother from when he gets home from school till 2am, when his mom comes home from work. He's only 8 years old and needs someone to watch himself. He's too young to be watching anyone else yet he doesn't have a choice. Then there was a young boy who came back after the weekend and told one of us volunteers how he went to a party with a bunch of 16 year olds that weekend. He told us how they offered him "grass" the entire time, and were all smoking it themselves. This boy is only 9.
The area of South Carolina that we worked in, needs a lot of help because it seems to be in their culture to have children while they are still a teenager, and to drop out of school. Most people live off of welfare, while others have jobs but that pay very little. Working there felt like I was really doing something good because these children really have no one in their lives that are benefitting them and teaching them good things. Even their teachers do not know exactly what they are doing, and need to be taught things themselves! I know while I was there, I experienced teachers who knew very little and sometimes were even teaching the children false information.
Even though we volunteers may have only been a part of their lives for a very short time, the hope is that we showed them a different part of the world and taught them new things that will last with them. I know that I think of them every day and I just hope that they do the same thing!
