Context
of the project
Colombia has seen in the seventies
various guerrilla movements arise
which, originally inspired by the
Marxist ideology, transformed into
a narco-trafficking network on the
whole of the territory.
These movements are facing at the
moment paramilitary groups, militias
created in the nineties to keep
law and order and make up, according
to them, for the State’s inefficiency.
These two outlaw groups are exerting
rare violence on the village populations
(murder, kidnapping), who have taken
refuge in the cities, thereby creating
so-called “invasion”
neighbourhoods in the outskirts
of the city. Bogotá, the
capital, has consequently seen its
population increase from 3 to 10
million inhabitants within ten years.
In these miserable neighbourhoods,
poverty and disarray have engendered
a severe violence which swoops down
on families; children are the first
victims.
Mission Enfance has been acting
in Colombia since 1996, with our
local partner, Mrs Françoise
Bardon, French nursery nurse who
has been living in this country
for 20 years. Our coordinator was
identified during the exploratory
mission carried out by the head
office of our organization. With
her, we have created nutritional
centres in the shanty-towns of the
Colombian capital. Soon, we detected
that the children’s problems
were not only alimentary…
they were not heard in their deprived
families. Often beaten, mistreated
by workless parents, poor and addicted
to drugs, these children reproduce
between themselves the violence
endured under their metal sheet
roofs.
It is the statement of this violence
operated on children which brought
our humanitarian organization to
consider the creation of the first
greeting centre, in 1997, so that
the children of Ciudad Bolivar,
a neighbourhood in the suburbs of
Bogotá, can live their childhood,
in a peaceful place, surrounded
by caring staff, listening to the
problems of these neighbourhood’s
families. Mission Enfance has therefore
initiated and supported until today
seven specialized centres, called
“toy and game libraries”
on the Colombian territory. In these
“toy and game libraries”,
children learn the rules of life
in society through rules of games:
sharing, tolerance as well as self-respect,
consequently respect of the other,
contributes to fight against violence.
The game library creates a climate
of contentment favourable to learning:
playing is learning to think. It
is a place where many games and
toys are at the disposal of children,
in a limited length of time, on
the spot or for them to take home.
Also, through the regular training
of the game librarians, a real psychological
support is brought to these children.
Support
to a network of 7 game libraries
on the Colombian territory
Each of these game libraries is
imperatively initiated with the
implication of the state’s
institutions. After every exploratory
mission carried out by our local
coordinator and a member of the
head office in Monaco, establishing
the creation of a new game library,
an agreement is set between the
organization in Colombia and the
municipality or the local administrative
area authorities. This partnership
contract determines the sharing
out of tasks between Mission Enfance
and the local authorities and the
availability of the building, the
functioning expenses (game librarian’s
salaries) or the endowment in toys.
Each of these game libraries has
a play room, a library and a fenced
garden. They are purposely set up
in the most underprivileged neighbourhoods
where misery, alcohol, drugs and
violence reign. Many are located
on territories subdued to guerrilla
attacks, in order to allow children
to have another image of man than
the one of an armed and cruel warrior.
In these difficult zones, deliberately
chosen for the important rate of
violence thus the importance of
our psychological work with the
children, Mission Enfance’s
teams must face the regular security
and communication restrictions or
sociological pressure. Mishaps are
numerous but never permanently hinder
our programs.
In the game libraries, the staff
welcomes children from 3 to 20 years
old, each day, by shift of 2 to
4 hours. Mothers bring their children
to the game library, when they are
less than 3 in order to also work
on the families of the communities.
Once there, the children choose
their toys, the game librarians
always available and caring to the
children, orient them, explain the
use of these toys and through the
experience of game, pass on a certain
number of messages on logic, values
and respect of the other. Therefore
they establish a privileged affective
relationship often absent in the
children’s families.
Aims
The targets of the toy and game
libraries are :
1. Give a normal and serene childhood
to the children victim of violence
in the shanty towns.
2. Bring them confidence and self-esteem.
3. Give a human refuge to the children.
4. School support given to the children
with the school books available
in the libraries and the presence
of a pedagogical team.
5. Socio psychological work towards
the inhabitants, through the mothers.
6. Training and follow up the work
of the game librarians (annual training
session in Bogotá).
7. Training our coordinator with
training missions in France.
Our toy and game library network
:
1- Bogotá : Ciudad Bolivar
area
2- La Uvita (Boyaca region)
3- Letitia (Amazonia region)
4- Puerto Narino (Amazonia region)
: and itinerant missions
5- Condoto (Choco) : in construction
but there is already a game library
travelling from school to school
6- Santa Marta (Magdalena region)
: Cristo Rey area
7- Santa Marta (Magdalena region)
: Pescaito area
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Aims
The targets of the toy and game
libraries are :
1. Give a normal and serene childhood
to the children victim of violence
in the shanty towns.
2. Bring them confidence and self-esteem.
3. Give a human refuge to the children.
4. School support given to the children
with the school books available
in the libraries and the presence
of a pedagogical team.
5. Socio psychological work towards
the inhabitants, through the mothers.
6. Training and follow up the work
of the game librarians (annual training
session in Bogotá).
7. Training our coordinator with
training missions in France.
Our toy and game library network
:
1- Bogotá : Ciudad Bolivar
area :
2- La Uvita (Boyaca region) :
3- Letitia (Amazonia region) :
4- Puerto Narino (Amazonia region)
: and itinerant missions :
5- Condoto (Choco) : in construction
but there is already a game library
travelling from school to school
6- Santa Marta (Magdalena region)
: Cristo Rey area :
7- Santa Marta (Magdalena region)
: Pescaito area :
Mission Enfance Colombia establishes
its program, depending on the areas,
according to the set of problems
encountered.
- In the Choco, populated by Afrodescendientes,
descendants of the African slaves
at the time of the conquistadors,
the game library of Condoto has
for mission to give back confidence
to these coloured children, isolated
and little integrated to the rest
of Colombia. Also, more and more
children are displaced in the Choco,
because of the violence between
the guerrilla and the paramilitary
forces. These young children are
very often disorientated and considered
as a population at risk. They flee
to cities, without recourse.
- The game library in Ciudad Bolivar
fights against the abandonment of
the children left to them-selves
and fallen in delinquency.
- In Amazonia, the children live
in insalubrious neighbourhoods,
gathering populations immigrated
from Brazil and Peru. The game library
becomes a place where people from
different communities and culture
meet up. On the banks of the Amazonian
river, in Puerto Narino, the itinerant
game libraries are there to fight
the isolation of deprived populations.
These Indian populations are confronted
with the brutal arrival of the occidental
civilisation and its direct consequences:
loss of cultural identity, alcoholism,
drugs and sicknesses.
- The game library of La Uvita is
located in the so-called «
red zone », at odds with the
guerrilla, a region close to Venezuela
and offers an oasis of peace to
the children.
- In Santa Marta lives a native
population fleeing from the guerrilla
to take refuge in shanty towns or
sort of ghetto. Our two game libraries
orient their psychological work
towards the mix of communities,
between half-castes and coloured
population, as well as on the violence
within families. Playing in the
game library erases the differences
of colour!
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