Schools for Children in the UNNIDO Foundation
Mexico City, Tlalpan
Mail: pwe@clubrotariotgm.com
About
More than 5 years ago, we started a beautiful project looking for the children of UNNIDO Foundation to attend Montessori spaces that would allow them to develop skills that, due to the family situation in which they had lived, they had not yet achieved. UNNIDO Foundation is an IPA dedicated to redressing children’s right to belong to a loving family. They take in children who, due to abandonment, neglect or abuse, the DIF removes from their homes. During the time in which children are reintegrated into their families of origin or integrated into an adoptive family, UNNIDO Foundation looks after their physical, emotional and academic interests.
Studies have shown that for each year institutionalized, children can have up to half a year of developmental lag, which leads to children being delayed in traditional educational institutions and it is difficult for them to achieve the desired development. Knowing that Montessori education allows each child to develop from the point where they are and not where age is considered to be, we set out to get children to attend a Montessori school. An alliance was achieved with CEMAC (Montessori Educational Community A.C.), by which 20 UNNIDO children can attend school, sharing with children from other families, the spaces prepared from Children’s Community to Workshop II. However, we are faced with the situation that UNNIDO can have up to 36 children, so for some we do not have space. This, coupled with the fact that children arrive at the foundation at different times of the year, sometimes causes that the quota in the school is full and they can not be incorporated. That is why, with the help of the Rotary Club Tlalpan Golf Mexico, a Montessori space was opened to support the education of these children through volunteering.
The prepared environment is mainly a Children’s House environment, but we have been adapting spaces to also serve workshop children. Currently, in addition to the 20 children who attend CEMAC, we work with 10 children in what we call the Escuelita. We have children from 2.11 to 12 years old and it has been a wonderful experience to see how a small community was created and how they develop individually. Our main objective is that children can regain confidence in themselves and in the environment around them, that they feel safe, adapted and owners of the space that is theirs. By developing this confidence, they manage to use the activities and materials that help them continue to develop life skills. Older children have become role models for younger children and reinforce their knowledge by supporting them in different activities. We see again and again that through prepared environments, as proposed by Dr. Montessori, the development of children occurs in an integral way, not concerned only with the academic area. And as this integral development is achieved, natural curiosity and the desire to achieve independence are manifested again. We have to constantly remember that the prepared environment will lead children to resume their natural process, we must trust the children and the times that each one requires for their development.
