Flourishing through music in the slums

Josephine te Pas

The first time I saw David, he was begging for money in the centre of the Nicaraguan city of Léon. This ten-year-old boy was called David Jose Ramires and he lived with his family in one of the many slums of the city: a dusty neighbourhood with houses made of cardboard, plastic and sheets of corrugated iron. David has eleven brothers and sisters, a number of which have been “given away” by his mother. His father is invisible and it turns out that his main concern is alcohol. As is the case with so many parents for whom the hopelessness of their existence is more than they can bear.

You can read more about Josephine's story here.

Tackling behavioural problems

Frederique van den Berg (psychologist)

On December 12th 2006 the psychologist Frederique van den Berg arrived in Léon. She would support our team for six months in her capacity of psychologist. For MPP, but especially for the team, she turned out to be a gift from the heavens. Before she left for Nicaragua, Frederique was not exactly sure how she could contribute to our work. But she moved mountains and, most important of all, made a huge difference in the quality of our social psychological aid.

Sports day!
Francine Egberts (Occupational therapist)

Organizing a sports day for a hundred children is not a simple thing. Our first sports day was planned just before the end of my stay in Léon and I regarded it to be the crown of my work to organize a carefree day for the street children of Léon. First of all, I discussed with our team in Léon what activities to plan. It turned out that our ideas on sports and games greatly differed on certain points. I was all for mixed teams and against red cards and a big trophy for the winning team. After two more meetings discussing this, I finally got permission to carry out my experiment. Fortunately, not everyone was sceptical about it. But mentor Jairo, for example, a fanatic soccer player himself, was absolutely certain that the boys would keep on knocking over the girls. So on sports day he showed up with, of course, a red card to punish bad fouls.

You can read more about Francine's story here.