The school year will resume. Teresa, the teacher, told us that she would work for this month only, because she wants to dedicate her time to building her house. Mariela, who is in charge of the logistics, is still on maternity leave; Alexandra substitutes for her. The rest of the team remains the same.

We are organizing again our “chronogramme” and beginning to discuss the new cases that will come in next week.

The resilience project will resume with the help of Emilia, the psychopedagogist: due to her health condition, we will meet at her place. We will aim at reinforcing this message through a variety of activities, among which a theatre workshop with Carol, who has been helping us for two years.

One of our children took up residence at his cousin’s place. We are negotiating a settlement with the lawyers at LOPNNA (a governmental organization that advocates children’s rights) to legitimate his choice. In October, we continuously met to settle the case of this family, which has been giving us some headaches… …

Here come the children! The “oldest” ones explains to the new ones what the Jardin de la Esperanza is and what we do here. Maria spontaneously delivered a speech which touched us deeply: in her words we felt the attachment of the children to our centre.

The process of adaptation has been a little slow for the new ones, as usual: Alexandra and Carol have made it easier, by organizing games and group activities.

For this stage of our project, the age of the girls at the Jardin ranges from 6 to 14.

We’ve got a group of three brothers. They’re all very shy. On the first days, they didn’t even speak in monosyllables!

Under this cute little face, a terrible child is hiding! He’s used to live on the streets, so the simplest rules seem to be impossible for him to observe. Never mind! This process is neither simple nor quick.

Alexandra will leave us because she found a permanent job as a physical education teacher. The brunette standing next to the kitchen is Maria Alejandra, who’s got a degree in education. She cooperated with other associations and will substitute for Mariela until February… hoping there will be nothing unexpected. The woman in pink is the mother of a new girl. From this year, the mothers will take turns to help prepare breakfast.

One more child for the speech therapists of the language recovery centre. Attention deficits and speech disorders are some of the most common conditions among the children at the Jardin.

Gabriela, a new volunteer from Canada, is practising artistic gymnastics with Flor.

And helps the older sisters of the new children with their English homework.

With another volunteer from AIESEC (the international university foundation that promotes university voluntary work), she organized an event about self-esteem.

The librarian is socializing with the new girls.

The four girls of the Jardin who take part in the youth rescue group went trekking in Sierra Culata.

And someone came up with the idea of bringing a “Twister” game to let the trainers play as well… .