Goodbyes aren't easy.

Today was my last day at Proyecto Pitillal Busca un Amigo A.C- the day centre for disabled children that I have been working at for the past 3 weeks and as much as I pride myself on being unemotional I was sad to leave such a lovely place.

The centre is entirely run on donations and is a place where children with all kinds of mental and physical disabilities from poor backgrounds or with single mothers are welcomed. At the centre the children are given specific therapy, schooling, nutrition and most importantly love. Despite a severe lack of funding, the centre is welcoming and I instantly felt at home. The staff took the time to explain everything, to tell us each child's story, to offer us food and drink and just to get to know us.

For example one little boy, Gregorio was born completely healthy but was sent by his mother to buy tortillas across a busy road when he was four and was knocked over by a bus. His father had to sell literally everything to save him. Another little girl, Sandy, suffered a stroke when she was younger and lost the ability to walk; she only just started being able to after much therapy a couple of weeks before we arrived. Most of the other children were born with various stages of cerebral paralysis and other disabilites but all are lovely who just want and need to be treated normally. A highlight for me was a trip to the cinema where we saw Shrek 3. Something so normal for the average child was an enourmous treat for the children from the centre and to be there was truly special.

Kareoke

During my time there I felt that I got to know each child and all the staff, especially Martha, the director who asked me to teach her how to use a computer. She picked it up so quickly and in order to raise the centre's profile I set her up a facebook account and a group for the Project. We are also in the process of setting up a paypal so that internation payements can be received. If you are interested in finding out more or donating once the account is set up please join the group:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/?ref=logo

Just before we left we were given certificates to thank us for our help and a couple of the girls drew us some pictures!

With Martha showing off our certificates.

However sad it is to leave such a lovely place where I only just started to feel like I was making a difference, this is also the beginning of a new adventure for me; watch this space....

Love Soph XX