We are urgently looking for volunteers to support our team as English teachers, youth workers and economic development workers from the middle of August onwards. Various positions are available; Spanish proficiency beneficial but not necessarily required.

Find out about the opportunities to join the SKIP team in the volunteer-section.

Last week, just after I arrived, a group of us went to a nearby Ceviche restaurant (we eat out lots because it's pretty much as cheap to eat out as it is to cook).  As we were paying the bill I saw a tiny kitten laying just outside the entrance.  I assumed the worst, that it was dying or already dead, since there are so many desperate animals here (not to mention humans).  Of course, my instinct was to try to do something, but I'm pretty limited as part of a volunteer program with my living situation the way it is.  So I just had to leave it and try to forget about it.

Today I went back to the same restaurant, and the kitten is alive and well.  It was roaming all over the restaurant as if it owned the place.  My whole day was brightened by seeing that kitten looking happy and healthy.

In the same way I sometimes feel really down when I walk around the area that we are working in.  There are just so many people in desperate need, and we are able to help so few.  It feels as if we are saving a grain of sand on a beach that is washing away.  But then I think about a kid I was working with today at the SKIP Program center, named Noel, about 7 years old.  He was looking at flags in a book, and I asked him if he knew where they came from.  Turns out that he knows almost nothing about the world, so we got out a world map and started looking at countries.  He was fascinated by continents, countries, flags, directions, everything.  I told him about different foods, clothes, houses, languages, music.  We did this for over an hour, just the two of us (in my very best Spanish -- luckily he helped me lots).  He never showed any signs of boredom.

There's a commonality with the kitten and Noel.  Maybe it's not possible to save the whole beach, but a few grains of sand are still very worthwhile.  That's why I'm here.

Shelley Tennyson

Last week saw the commencement of the all new SKIP nursery. We have 8 children enrolled in the programme which is running daily, Monday to Friday, from 8am -12pm. The project is a collaboration of effort between the parents and SKIP volunteers, each parent giving a morning of their time to come and help us in the nursery. In return they receive free daycare for their child the remaining 4 mornings each week.

We have pictures of the children on the facebook group....