El Dia del Niño

Last Friday was an important day for Proyecto Horizonte and Bolivia, “El Dia del Niño”. Children’s Day was established by the UN in 1954 to promote children’s access to education and to raise awareness about child labour around the world. Many countries around the world celebrate it on November 20^th however Bolivia observes El Dia del Niño on April 12^th each year.

When I arrived into work in the morning the whole complex was decorated with balloons and was looking fairly amazing.

 

Around half ten that morning all the classes in the pre-kinder/kinder complex were brought out into the yard and were given a real treat. A play performed by some of Proyecto’s staff!

"No quiero ir a la escuela, mama!"

The children were totally enraptured by it. It told the story of a little girl who didn’t want to go to school when she got up in the morning however her mama made sure that she did. And to great benefit too! When the little girl came back from school in the afternoon she told us all of how much she had learned that day and what opportunities and education had afforded her. Mama also made sure she brushed her teeth, washed her face and hands, and had a nutritious breakfast.  Needless to say the niños were suitably impressed.

Sebastian and Marie enjoying the festivities

After the play finished up we then all proceeded to dance around the playground. There’s nothing like a good dance after a lovely spot of theatre in my opinion.

Everybody dance now!

We returned to class and the day ended with the children getting a special treat of some kind of sweet popcorn (to be honest I’m not entirely sure what it was but it was pretty tasty all the same). Then after a tiring, educational, fun and exciting Dia del Niño the children went for an afternoon nap. Well needed and sorely deserved, I thought... I could’ve done with a nap myself after all the excitement.