At HOOP’s main school in Flora Tristan, classes run from 3:30pm to 4:45pm every weekday. After the classes finish some of you might think that the kids are done for the day and ready to go back home. At HOOP we believe that we should provide the kids with the maximum support we can offer though and this means that only providing English classes is not enough for us. That’s why we offer the kids two different options of activities to choose from once they are done with their daily classes. Some of them might choose to participate in Homework Help while others may prefer to go down to the court three blocks away and be part of what we call Cancha Time.
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| Kids lining up after the end of the class to either go to homework help or the cancha |
Homework Help is an activity designed to help the kids with their regular school homework. Volunteers stay behind in order to help the children complete their homework in subjects such as Mathematics, English and Sciences. This activity is extremely important, especially for kids that have trouble completing their homework at home because their parents do not have time or the necessary level of education to assist them. Furthermore, from my experience as a current volunteer, Homework Help is an excellent opportunity for us to get to know the kids better and to build a more personal relationship with each one of them. There is nothing more rewarding than the feeling of when you sit together with a kid, provide some help and directions on how to complete his homework, and then see the ongoing progress until the point when the kid happily smiles at you and says: “Finished Teacher!”
Cancha Time is the activity in which the volunteers play sports and games with the kids at the Cancha (Spanish word for sports field or court). The more popular games with the kids are soccer, volleyball, basketball, and jump rope. Cancha Time provides the kids with benefits that go beyond the advantages of doing physical activity; it also increases their self-esteem and mental alertness. As a volunteer who currently helps out with Cancha Time I think that the highlight of this activity is that the relationship between kids and volunteers becomes something more than teacher and students. The children are completely comfortable playing with us and treat us as their friends, and that feels amazing!
HOOP is interested in contributing to the overall development of the Flora Tristan kids and families. Both Homework Help and Cancha Time show HOOP’s commitment in improving not only the English level of the kids, but their general well being and healthy development. In spite of the hard work that both activities require from us volunteers, it all pays off in the end when we see true happiness coming from a kid like the one on the picture below!!!
Written by Cayruã Fonseca
