Fundación Dame La Mano attended a global citizenship project at TCS on March 31 led by Grade 10 students where 74 children ages 5-11 had the opportunity to spend the day with HS students. 

Fundacion Dame la Mano helps low-income families by providing food and other support services including education to children in Medellin. Grade 10 students Gregorio Angel, Samuel Zuñiga, Antonia García, and Juana Molina, were in charge of coordinating the event. They spent approximately 7 months working on bringing the project to life and giving the kids the best day ever. 

“For months we have been working non-stop, talking to lawyers getting the respective documentation, encouraging students to participate, and much more in order for the event to be successful, it was a long process but all worth it at the end when seeing the kid’s reactions,” Juana Molina, said.

Organizing the logistics for the entire event proved to be a challenging task for the high school leaders. They had to reach out to various companies and restaurants to secure food or monetary donations to finance the event.

“Successfully we received 350,000 COP from El Exito, 200 cheese sticks from Le Palito, the entire lunch was donated by Servi Express and the school also played a significant role since they helped us with transportation and the nurse,” Antonia Garcia said. 

Prior to the event, student leaders arranged three main groups with HS volunteers: logistics, problem solvers, and recreationists. Each group had a different schedule and task in order to maintain everything working properly. 

“There were 3 main possibilities as to the role you could play. First being in logistics and being a leader of a group, second being in charge of a station. Third being a problem solver which was free all the time in case something happened, and lastly being a “buddie” which was being in charge of a kid and plaguing with them the whole day,” Gregorio Angel, said. 

There were a total of 10 teams, each had approximately 6 kids from the foundation accompanied by the HS volunteers. During the day, each team rotated around the coliseum to complete a variety of recreational activities.

“The decision of making 10 different teams was made so everyone could have the opportunity to get to know each other and to spend quality time with every kid,” Molina, said.

Activities included a relay race, karaoke, dancing competition, painting, capture the flag, soccer, and lastly, watching The Lion King movie. 

“I think that all these activities were chosen for a specific reason, first so they have a chance to work in teams and individually, show off their capacities, and challenge themselves. Personally, this was one of the most fulfilling experiences I ever had,” Martina Jaramillo, Grade 11 volunteer, said. 

This was a very special opportunity for TCS students to give back to the community and give kids that normally don’t have these opportunities a chance to enjoy a day out of the ordinary. 

“Today was a very fun day. I have never played for so long with my friends, and have never made friends so quickly with people that aren’t my age, overall this event was the best,” Mariangelyis Valentia, of Fundacion Dame La Mano, said.