Dear Acorn supporters
Our fundraising Event has been put forward to Tuesday 9th June and will be held at Krakow Cafe-Bar, Venezuela 474 at 9.00pm. There will be an entrance fee of 20 pesos which includes a drink at the bar, well worth the fee in what should be an entertaining night to help us through difficult times.

If you or anybody else is in the city, please please come along and show your support! We are again teaming up with the Buenos Aires Pub Crawl at the end of the month, where the night will end at the exclusive KIKA nightspot.

In other news of Club Acorn, we are proud and extremely excited to announce our new link with the Boca Juniors Foundation. Three of our boys have already been to the programme, where they are given access to the world famous stadium, use the huge library and have dedicated professionals that provide school support and psychologists.

Its vital to us to build and maintain links within the community of La Boca and there is no link more prestigious in Boca, than Boca Juniors!

The project runs on Thursday mornings, to provide support for children not in school or those that attend in the afternoons and they are encouraged to work to get them back into education.

The excitetment was tangible when I walked the boys back from two hours spent in La Bombonera. We saw a few first team players and they were promised they would meet their idols in person if they stuck to the programme and made the effort to improve their reading skills.

With the Boca Juniors project and Club Acorn, we have a real hope now for these kids and we are all so proud and excited for them that they might get to meet their heroes! (not without putting the work in first!)
Aguante Club Acorn
John Reece

The last time I wrote, we were preparing for 'Alta Joda' to raise money for our centre and be able to give the children a positive experience, outside of La Boca. Thanks to a successful event (Many thanks to the Buenos Aires Pub Crawl, The Buenos Aires Herald, Whats up Buenos Aires and everyone that turned up) We were able to take 21 or our children to the Zoo!

The children AND volunteers had a great day and it was a reward to the kids for the hard work they had put in, the month before in the classes the volunteers so brilliantly deliver. From Maths, Cooking to Yoga!

You can see pictures of our trip on our facebook page this week!

We are currently working hard to make Alta Joda 2 happen. However, money raised will go on keeping Club Acorn going through some very difficult times. We are planning this event on the 20th May in San Telmo (conformation coming soon!) so if your in the city or know anybody that is, please spread the word for what is a vitally important event to keep Club Acorn de Ninos strong.

Vamos por lo bueno
John

The children of the centre are currently enjoying their summer holidays and as we approach the new school year, Club Acorn is preparing for a fundraising event to give the children the educational materials they deserve.

For the third time, we are teaming up with the Buenos Aires Pub Crawl on the 27th February. If you are in the city, please come along and support us and bring your friends. We will be meeting at Plaza Armenia at 22.00 before moving on to three bars and a nightclub in Palermo. The night is called Alta Joda a slang term for good times, although at the same time we hope to spread the word of our project and get more supporters on board.

The money raised on the evening will go towards new books, paints, food and hopefully if we have the required numbers - day trips out for the children. Many of us will have fond memories of school trips to the zoo, theatre and museums. It will incredibly satisfying for us all at Club Acorn if the children of La Boca are able to benefit from the same experiences. With fundraisers like this, its definitely possible.

For more information on the evening, we have the flyer on our facebook page, CLUB ACORN INTERNATIONAL.

Wish us luck..for an alta noche.
Saludos
John Reece

Buenos dias amigos! My name is Amanda La France and as one of newest volunteers to the Club Acorn family, I am both honored and very excited to share with you the current ongoings of the center! At the center we just started "Nuestro Barrio es tu Casa" which means "Our Neighborhood is your Home", a multi-media project that combines self identity and environmental exploration to demonstrate the importance of community and the vital role each and every member contributes to a neighborhood that make it a home. The components of this project include Photography, Theatre, Painting, in addition to Writing short stories and poems. All of these mini-workshops will be pieced together to culminate into one final presentation to be held in January for family, friends, and the community of La Boca. With this project we hope to instill, even if just a small part, a feeling investment to the community in which these amazing young minds are a part of. And that in turn, down the road, will surface again as these children become the future leaders of their communities! Week 1 started with a discussion about our group's families, likes/dislikes, personalities, characteristics, homes, neighborhood and also what they envisioned as their perfect place. This week we will continue the theme of their unique identies as well as apply that theme as we go out into the barrio to take pictures of the aspects of La Boca that make it so special as a home. We will also begin creating short skits that will tie in messages of tolerance, anti-drug use, and community togetherness. Whew! We have a lot to get done in the next coming weeks! We'll keep you posted!

Hello to all the Club Acorn family, friends and supporters! I'm John Reece, the new Director of Club Acorn. First and foremost, I would like to introduce myself and express my happiness of being part of not only a fantastic club but also an amazing international community.

 

I have been working with the previous director, Lenore Matthew, since July and although sorry to see her go...I'm looking forward to this experience and hope to follow in the footsteps of Ali, Sara and Lenore. If I have achieved half of what they have, I will be happy.

 

Back to the latest developments of Club Acorn...we are approaching the summer months, which means a turnover in volunteers. Although we are going through a transitional period in terms of staff, the good part of this is we are getting fresh ideas!

 

Last week, the children of the centre worked together on producing a huge flag, representing various different countries. Each child was given a black and white copy of a flag from a different country - The first task was to find out which colours to use, with the aid of a book (which helped the staff as well as we did not know all of them either!) then once painted...they produced a huge banner, with all the flags together. The idea was to get the kids to think about equality. We didn't tell them at first what our aim was...which made it more pleasing for all of us when one of the boys who was not particularly keen on the painting, decided to write a title to our display...NO A LA RACISMO! No to racism.

 

The banner along with title now hangs proudly in our centre and everyday they see their work on the wall. We are planning an anti drug campaign once we have the materials to produce placards and an exciting photography workshop where the children talk about their community using visuals (this you will hear about in more detail  two weeks from now, as one of our volunteers will tell you all about it!). We have some great ideas for our club and we strive for the funds to be able to give the children the materials to showcase their work and give them something to be proud of, while they are learning in a safe environment.

 

Any contributions and we are entirely grateful!!! Monetary, paint, paper, dictionaries...you name it!! Ok, that's all for now folks!!!

Saludos,

John

Update Time!

Hello to all of Club Acorn's friends and family! A lot has happened with our center since the last post! Please read on for a quick overview of what the Club Acorn students, volunteers, and community members have been up to. Also, don't forget to log on to our Facebook page. There are new photos up now!

*We have had our third fundraiser, "Una Noche de Mitos Argentinos y Vino." Community members and international expats came together to listen to an hour-long discussion on Mitos Argentinos, or Argentinean urban legends, as well as enjoy local wine and tango music. The evening was a great success! Stay tuned for details on our next fundraiser, which will be happening next month.

*A group of students and volunteers headed to the zoo in Palermo for Club Acorn's first field trip. The day was loads of fun! We spent one Saturday exploring all of the exhibits and learning about various types of animals. The highlight of the day was definitely the Aquatic Show, where we saw what tricks the very talented sea lions could do.

*During the kids' winter break, we held an Intensive English Camp. For two weeks, our students learned various basic English concepts. Each day had its own theme, such as the Environment and Recycling, and Television and Film. Volunteer collaboration on this project was phenomenal!

*We have added another new class, Art for Adults. This course is designed to teach basic art skills to community adults. The class will be held on Thursdays at 5pm, during the same time as the Kids' Cooking and Nutrition.

Thank you everyone for your continued participation and support! See you in Boca soon!

Besos,
Lenore Matthew
Director Club Acorn Argentina

My First Month with Club Acorn

Hello Club Acorn friends and family! I can't believe it, but my first month as Director of Club Acorn has already flown by. A lot has changed over the last several weeks, all helping Club Acorn to grow and become an important member of the Boca-Barracas community.

One of the most exciting developments is the addition of several new classes. For our kids, we have introduced Nutrition and Cooking, which involves a lesson on good-for-you food, as well as a cooking project, in which the students actually create a healthy merienda for the day. We have had a computer donated to the center, and are introducing a Computacion class to utilize the machine. We also have added Reading and Writing in Español for adults who have not previously learned how to read and write in Spanish.

Additionally, our Theater and English classes are still going strong. Sadly, our Dance teacher has left Buenos Aires. If anyone is or knows another person who is interested in taking over the Dance class, please do let me know!

Another development at the center includes the introduction of the color-coded identification card system. Each student has a card with his or her name on it. To encourage good behavior, they have the opportunity to earn points for the days they have behaved well. Once they reach 15 points, they may trade in the card for a prize. Once the first card has been completed, they graduate to the next color. We are working hard at Level One Blue, and soon enough, we'll have some students at Level Two Red!

As we head into Winter, everyone at Club Acorn is bundled up and ready to go! We have a few new twists in the works, including a field trip to the Zoo and an in-center concert. The volunteers and I are constantly brainstorming ideas to introduce new projects and lessons to the center, but as we all know, the more brains, the better! If anyone has any input, please do contact us. We appreciate all of the contributions!

In the meantime, stay tuned for more words from Club Acorn! Mucha suerte!!!!

Besos,
Lenore Matthew
Director Club Acorn Argentina

Passing the Torch

First of all, apologies for not having updated the blog sooner- to be completely honest, we have had so much going on with Club ACORN we have not had time! We have a lot of wonderful and exciting new developments:

• We have hired a director, as Ali and I are unfortunately ending our time here in Argentina. However, we and Club ACORN feel extremely lucky to have found Lenore, an energetic young woman from San Francisco who is not only amazing with the kids but understands the importance of community and wants to not only keep the program going but help it to grow.

• We have found new friends in BA Pub Crawl! On Friday, April 25, 2008, they held a benefit fundraiser for Club ACORN and gave us 50% of all their profits. Thanks again to the hard work of our volunteers and supporters, the event was a huge success and we have funds to keep going for a couple more months.

• We also held a parents meeting last week to formally say our goodbyes and officially welcome Lenore into Club ACORN. It was truly an amazing way to say goodbye- we had one mother tell Ali and I “no hay palabras”, (there are no words) for what this center has meant for her and her son. That was all we needed to push us to bring this home to the states and stay involved from there- something we will be doing by starting to work to gain legal NGO status for Club ACORN and by having Ali and I remain on the board of directors- checking in monthly with our director here in Argentina.

• Lastly, as always, where would we be without our volunteers? They truly amaze us every day. We were going to have to shut down the center next week due to overlapping travels- Ali, myself and Lenore are all back in the States at the same time- but one of our volunteers stepped up as an substitute director for the next week to keep the center going. Another volunteer collected cell phones from his abroad program to donate to the center. Another volunteer organized a resume workshop for adults. We feel lucky to have had the chance to meet and work with all these caring and hardworking people- we can never thank them enough.

Sadly, this may be the last blog entry from Ali and myself for a while- but let us just say that we are so grateful for all that Club ACORN has done for us- as we told the parents at the parent meeting, Club ACORN has made us feel like we had a home here in Argentina, and we cannot imagine not coming back to see it. We are sad to go, but at the same time extremely excited for the future of this project- thank you to all who have helped our dream become a reality.

Con carino, Sara Gips y Ali Morris

Volunteer Observations

Volunteer observations by Cameron Ling 10/04/2008

I’m starting to think that the aliens are sending down UFOs packed to the rafters with volunteers for Club ACORN. A more convincing explanation for their proliferation eludes me. Every five minutes a new volunteer walks in the door with a shy smile painted on their face as outside, little green men wave through the windows of a rather large, circular craft that then proceeds to vanish.
Really though, it’s a great thing to have met so many people there in these last few weeks. Every day more people come along who have, for whatever reason, decided to offer some of their time to the project. They come for a variety of reasons, but clearly money and fame are not among them: the money is non-existent and the fame limited to this blog and a few kids who can’t pronounce your name. But still they come, people from all countries, united by bad Spanish and the motivation to do something decent.
I’m an English teacher at the centre. Numbers in my classes vary from zero to a dozen. The classes of zero are my favourites because this means I put on my second hat: soccer player with the kids. The soccer-playing kids are fairly young, so when they kick me – and they always have at least a tap – it doesn’t hurt much. They are Argentine kids, however, so six years old or not, it’s not uncommon to have one wipe the floor with you, scoring screaming overhead kicks, diving headers and the like.
The building we use is owned by an Argentine Uruguayan Association (ARUBA). Plenty of framed photos and paintings of important-looking Uruguayans crowd the walls. When we play soccer, occasionally the ball strikes a frame and the frame falls to the ground. I then run over and pick it up, apologising to all and sundry for trying to drive a thirty-yard strike through the heart of the eight-yard indoor pitch. I usually apologise to the guy in the picture, too, just in case.
The soccer games are facilitated – mandated, I would argue - by the shape of our space. Imagine long fluorescent light globes like you see in schools, then the box said light might come in. Inflate the box but maintain its shape. Now you’re talking! Long, it is. Very long. The roof is quite high, too. Giants are welcome therefore, as are those who walk on stilts.
It’s early afternoon and the kids are painting some posters that are to be put up around the barrio to try and make surrounding streets safer. More on that in a sec. The concentration spans of the kids, however, are as limited as any kids’, anywhere. So soon we are on to a memory game, or chasing them up and down the space or just trying to decipher what they say when they talk to us in silly voices and change seats for no reason.
A kid walks in. It’s good to see him. He has a heart of gold, as all do, but he can be explosive and non-compliant all the same. We are mates through soccer and the small amount of time I have spent with him trying to decipher his homework. Today he has tears in his eyes and he is late. We don’t know why. We won’t know why. His behaviour is erratic and at times destructive. I don’t know how it will be today. The way he acts sometimes suggests that he has grown up around violence – too much. You don’t know these things, of course, but there is enough to lead one to wonder. He has progressed though. It is a joy to see him walk in and a pleasure to help offer a space such as this.
The street outside the centre is always busy. People walk past and their curiosity sometimes drags them inside. A thousand buses, trucks and alien spaceships pass by each minute, regaling us with their cacophony and making the centre seem a sanctuary. Another kid comes in, then another volunteer. Green men wave the volunteer goodbye and are gone. The boy however, is followed closely by his mother, and there are hello kisses all round. Our next visitor is the grandmother of one of the kids. She was here ten minutes ago. She has some soft drink and biscuits for us to use at afternoon tea. She is not a wealthy woman, undoubtedly, but she has gone to the supermarket because she knows the club has little money, that the workers are there of their own accord. Various members of the community donate things now: small, but useful things. They give what they can.
Last night there was a neighbourhood meeting that took place in the centre. Local residents, mostly older, came along to participate and support the process. Their immediate campaign goal is to stop trucks using local residential streets as Formula One practice tracks. Trucks are prohibited in the streets in question, but circulate through them with impunity. This has resulted in the deaths of various locals in recent years. As the footpaths around the barrio are in such a poor state - and many are raised with steep steps - the elderly, in particular, are forced to walk on the road itself. Thing is, the roads aren’t so wide, and the trucks, like all traffic in Buenos Aires, seem to go as fast as they can whenever they can. You get the picture. Local residents certainly do, and the kids at the centre have been painting signs to put up around the area to stand up for their rights.
The people who come to the meeting understand that governments, particularly theirs, will only offer any change to the status quo when impelled to. It’s inspiring then, to see people of scarce resources, many of them elderly, all of them aware of the myriad other problems they face both individually and collectively, coming together to work towards such a humble goal. Reminds you of the Margaret Mead quote - one of few universal truths, to my mind: ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.’
Today I went around the barrio knocking on doors with Rossi, the supervisor for the centre. The idea was to get some support for an upcoming protest action around the truck issue and simultaneously spread the word about the centre and what we offer.
Rossi lives two hours away. She works full-time, travels two hours each way, each day, and has three boys, one only two years-old, who is currently sick and had her up until all hours the night before our doorknocking. Undaunted by the barriers placed in her way, she knocks on each door with a spring in her step and a genuine smile, and before people can brush her off delivers a speech about the upcoming action, the centre, the volunteers, the local kids. Most of them know her because it is not the first time she has come around to ask for their support.
In her spare time she is one of the students in my Tuesday night class, keen to learn, and always keen to have a laugh. We talk a bit about her time in Lima, Peru, and she tells me about the volunteer work she did there with homeless kids. She wasn’t involved with any organization, just helped homeless kids for years, in her own time, off her own back. This doesn’t surprise me. She tells me that she sometimes takes homeless kids around here for a coffee or something to eat, talks to them about their lives. When she goes to leave they hug her like you wouldn’t believe, she says. But I do, because I have seen some of these kids, asleep on the side of the street in their dirty rags, often out of their brains, in a world that would prefer they did not exist. I can understand their surprise, that she would take the time where the rest of us do the opposite.
Back in the centre, some new volunteers have come in, as has a certain five-year-old girl who, without fail, runs into the centre every day throwing her arms in the air and screaming, ‘They’re open! They’re open!’ I am giving a one-on-one English lesson at the front desk with one of our regulars, a teenage girl. The desk is close to our only permanent piece of furniture. Atop it sits a small vase that holds a small bunch of flowers. I don’t know how they came to be there, whose thought, whose few pesos brought them here, but they seem entirely appropriate.

Over a month and still going strong...

This week was an interesting one- due to strikes and protests in Buenos Aires, the center was shut down on Tuesday to ensure the safe travel of our volunteers to and from the center. Although we were not sure whether we needed to shut it down, the safety of our volunteers is one of our primary concerns, and so we listened to our ACORN leader’s advice and closed the center. However, other than that, things ran pretty smoothly this week!

We are now offering theater and dance classes in addition to our art and English classes, and a community member also expressed interest in offering adult literacy classes, something we would definitely like to pursue. We still have amazing volunteers coming in every day with new energy and ideas… something we truly feed of off and are starting to rely on.

The kids have had their good and bad days- discipline is still an issue, and the time out chair has not only been implemented, but been well-used. One of the hardest things for me is that it can be very difficult to make kids work and sit quietly and do educational projects after they have already been in school for either the morning or all day. At the same time, if they do not want to do work and instead want to play soccer, I would rather that they were playing soccer at Club Acorn than on the streets with cars rushing by. To combat this, we have started to give more free time and then compliment that free time with work time- we try to create games and projects that will be fun and interactive and different from the regular monotonous schoolwork they encounter each day. Our classes are also amazing in this respect, because we can offer something different for the kids yet it does not seem like school to them. And once again, our volunteers make all the difference- if we can get kids sitting and working one on one, they not only behave ten times better, but they want to work and work harder.

We remain optimistic and excited- working on sustainability continues to be a priority, but with new friends in the BA Pub Crawl, we have new fundraising potential and things seem to be falling into place. We are feeling like we are ready to start reahing out in the neighborhood once again, knocking door to door to be able to reach even more children- we have our basics down, we know how to do this and we want to make sure we are offering Club Acorn to as many children who want to take advantage of these opportunities. So we think on multiple levels- thinking about how to ensure that this program is running in a year, thinking about what to do for new classes, how to reach out to new volunteers- and what art project we should do tomorrow. And who knows what tomorrow will bring— each day is different; each day brings its own challenges, but each day brings its own successes.