This is the story of Bernadette, a woman who both teaches and is taught by the children at the Kindergarten at Voluntario Global. Bernadette learned about Voluntario Global during a visit to Buenos Aires in 2006 while trying to learn a second language and pursuing her passion for travelling. On her travels, a poster for VG caught her eye:

“Do you want to discover another side of BsAs”? “I thought that it would be interesting to meet local people, local children and exchange ideas. I also love teaching and I thought that I could help them by teaching them English and in exchange they would share a bit of their life with me.” She was right to follow her instinct, she would go on to work in the Kindergarten projects, “Pim Pom” and “Travesuras” with great success.

“There are too many favorite memories to pick one! Children climbing all over you to ask you questions or kiss you, seeing changes in a kindergarten from money raised through my friends and family, realizing that the people you are working with consider you as “part of their community”, being able to suddenly understand what they are telling you in Spanish and then, them being able to understand your answer in broken Spanish”. 

With the affection for Argentina and joy her initial stay brought her, she decided to keep volunteering as a part of her life. She returns every year to take on a new project. “I love the people, I love the language.” Something started happening to Bernadette as she volunteered over the years: “I began to put things into perspective more. Things that before seemed important, somehow now seem a little less important. I have discovered another way of life, felt part of another community, very different from what I had known so far.” Bernadette saw how the organization expanded - more projects began, people ranging from all over the world came to participate, its effect on the community became more powerful.

“VG was very small when I started with them. I have seen them grow into the great organisation it is today. They now have more projects to choose from, more possibility.” This teacher has learned a lot about what it means to be a volunteer and part of a community during her time at Voluntario Global. She offers a final word of advice for future volunteers would would like to get involved: “I think the first thing [I would recommend] is to have an open mind.

Things are very different from what we know. They are not worse, just different. We must accept this and see how we can help without thinking that what we do is “better”. We must realize also that we will probably get more out of the experience than they will. This is an exchange, we bring something to share with the people and they teach us things about themselves, their life, their community, their language and culture. We must enter into this experience thinking that we will have a fun time, we will enjoy what we are doing and what we are learning whilst feeling that what we do might just change the world a little.”