Volunteer Placement Profile Early Childhood Education Volunteer

Day Care Center Tita Mary Guadalupe, Costa Rica

www.volunteerbasecamp.com Day Care Center Tita Mary

Placement ID: 292 Country: Costa Rica Location: Guadalupe Placement Category: Education Placement Type: Non-Formal Teaching Organization Type: Child Day Care Minimum Duration: 1 week Language Skill: Intermediate Placement Fee: None Accommodation: BaseCamp OR Host Family Months Not Available: Available all year

www.volunteerbasecamp.com Quick Facts: Placement ID: IND-292 Location: Guadalupe, Costa Rica Sector: Education Category: Min Duration: 1 week Lodging: Language: Intermediate Job Description

The Tita Mary Daycare Center provides education and daycare for the underprivileged population of children ages one to five years, in the Guadalupe region. Children attending this daycare come mainly from single parents and low income families. There are only two staff employed at the daycare who attend to all the needs of approximately 15 to 20 children each day. Therefore, staff usually can only look after the kids immediate and necessary needs. Daycare volunteers can do so much for these children be it there emotional or physical well being. At the same time, the volunteers can take a little stress off of the sometimes exhausted staff. Volunteers at this placement would be responsible to create and implement fun and learning activities for the children who have had little opportunity in their young lives to do so. The volunteers would also be expected to help with the routine work at the daycare. No special background is needed to work at this placement but experience with children and lots of enthusiasm are a plus.

Volunteer Tasks Required

Daycare Assistance

Daycare volunteers will help to facilitate the daily routine at Tita Mary Daycare Center. Some of these activities will be educational games, dancing and songs. Communication with the staff and other volunteers will be important in order to implement the new activities.

Playing With the Children

The children at the daycare are between 1 and 5 years old, so they demand a lot of energy all day long. Daycare volunteers must be prepared to be very active. Creativity will be an important tool to help the children keep busy. Create new games and/or help to organize and participate in existing ones.

Teach English

Children between 1 to 5 years old learn a second language faster than older kids. Daycare volunteers will be responsible to create activities where children will be able to learn English. This can be done through games, songs, dancing and books.

Help Staff

Daycare assistant volunteers will help with breakfast and lunch by serving and feeding the children. The kids also have a nap time, so volunteers will help with that process every afternoon. When children are sleeping, volunteers will help with the general cleaning of the centre.

www.volunteerbasecamp.com Maintenance

The daycare needs constant upkeep. Daycare volunteers will help with minor maintenance jobs like painting walls, fixing chairs, organizing the kitchen or cleaning the green area.

www.volunteerbasecamp.com Organization Details About the Organization

This center assists underprivileged families or single mothers by caring for children while parents are working, helping them with homework and recreational activities. At the community daycare center, the main objective was to develop and implement a system to ensure care for children whose parents work in poor communities that lack access to child care options. Specifically working with children of 0-6 years for educational and psychological development. The program seeks to improve children's diet, hygiene, and development. This program does not only work for the overall development of children, but also promotes the participation and support between families and community members. The program is set up for parents to choose someone from the town to be the caregiver. Sometimes only one person in the area or there may be more than one person at the childcare center on a rotating basis. The caregiver is responsible for up to 17 children Monday to Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 pm. The children receive attention and affection, participate in educational activities, learn about personal hygiene, and receive breakfast, lunch and two snacks. Now they are implementing bilingual activities for the children in order to teach them the basis language skills before they go to school.

When the Organization was Founded

The organization was create in 2008 by Maricruz Smith, her husband and her mother. She is a kindergarten teacher who was looking to help single mothers and people who did not have the funds to pay a daycare or could not send their children to the government institutes due to the lack of vacancies.

How the Organization is Funded

Daycare Center Tita Mary was founded by Maricruz and her husband with their own funds but the children receive a scholarship from IMAS which is a Costa Rica institute who helps single mothers and/or poor families.

Role of Religion Within This Organization

This organization practices the Catholic religion in order to establish a religious philosophy with the children but the only way this is implemented at the center is by praying once during the day.

www.volunteerbasecamp.com Placement Location Information

Tita Mary Daycare Center is located in central town of Goicoechea, San José, 50 meters west from the municipal building. This center is located in Guadalupe downtown close to several facilities like supermarkets, restaurantes, banks, stores and internet cafes. It also has an easy access to public transportation to downtown San Jose or other cities around. The center was built in house but features all the modification that a daycare center needs. The buiding has a colorful gate entrance. The main room for children's learning activities is a small living room with little table, a rack full of coloring books, pencils, crayons and materials for teaching. The little kitchen has the basic appliances but children at the daycare receive the three meals per day. There is a small living room full of beds and mattresses for nap time which is next to the patio where children can play with bigger toys. The center has one bathroom for boys and girls and a little office for the teacher and director.

City Description

Guadalupe is a suburb of Costa Rica, the capital of the Goicoechea Canton, and now fully incorporated in the Metropolitan Area of San Jose. Located at an altitude of 1,204 meters, Guadalupe is represented as the central district of the canton and with a population of 26,000 inhabitants living in 7,004 dwellings. Guadalupe is a developed city, with a lot of shops, supermarkets, internet cafés, several clinics, restaurants, bars, a couple of malls, banks and many other facilities. Travellers seeking a more urban experience may enjoy the laid back nature of the city of Guadalupe, with its conveniently close location to the bustling capital city of San Jose.

Points of Interest

Guadalupe acquired the title of city on August 10th, 1920, and since its founding as a district has preserved its land area of 2.48 km. The Guadalupe District is one of the seven districts of the Canton of Goicoechea. Despite limited land area, it borders with the districts of White Street and San Francisco west, and that of Ipís and Winburg east. In addition, Guadalupe shares the border with the canton of Moravia in the north, Montes de Oca south, and a small portion with the central county of San Jose to the south-west.

Weather in the Area

The weather in Guadalupe is very simple; in the dry season it is sunny and a little hot; in the rainy season, it rains a lot and is kind of cold. The nights are chilly. The surrounding lowlands and forests, including Braulio Carrillo National Park, are extremely humid and reach altitudes of nearly 9,500ft.

Transportation From BaseCamp

www.volunteerbasecamp.com From the BaseCamp house walk two blocks to the main street and take any bus that goes to San Jose, after the Central Park in Guadalupe, you must request the stop to the bus driver and get off at the Municipality of Guadalupe. Walk 50 meter to the west and you will find the colorful gate.