Carlos' experience in an integral education centre: "I have been able to get to know another reality on a cultural and professional level".

Carlos is a pedagogue and has worked for a month at the comprehensive education centre we support in Cochabamaba (Bolivia). There he has worked with students with different disabilities and with the staff of the centre. He tells us about his experience:

I volunteered from Monday to Friday during school hours, which are from 08:30 to 12:00; I also went to the school some afternoons, but not all of them, to help my colleagues with the organisation of the classrooms and preparation of celebration days on the occasion of the National Day.

It was normal to start at 08:30 to work with classmates in the classrooms with the pupils of the centre. These pupils were mainly intellectually disabled, although some of them could have other associated disabilities.

During the volunteering not only I worked with the studentsI also undertook a task of advice and support to the rest of the professional colleagues in the centre. In the first week, the director suggested to me the possibility of holding a course on inclusive schooling with my colleagues, which we did two weeks later, and which also took up a large part of my afternoons in preparation. The course was attended by colleagues from the centre, as well as professionals from other centres in Cochabamba. 

What I liked the most about my trip was to get to know another reality both culturally and professionally, to be able to share our educational experiences with our colleagues and to help to the extent of my possibilities in the centre. Meeting and working with the students at Consipe and feeling loved by all of them has been a wonderful experience. 

It has been a very nice and enriching experience to be able to work and collaborate to the extent of my possibilities, getting to know at first hand a reality that is very close to me (I work in the sector), but at the same time so far away (ways of working, resources, philosophy...), which is why I recommend anyone, whether or not they work in education, to take this kind of trip, from which they will only gain positive experiences".