When school holidays arrive, the routines of the Saint Monica Home, the socio-educational project of the Augustinian Recollects in Fortaleza (Brazil) for girls and adolescents in recovery after a situation of special vulnerability, are broken.
With the arrival of the holidays in the classrooms, the schedules and routines of the girls who benefit from the Saint Monica Home in Fortaleza (Ceará, Brazil) are substantially modified to allow for moments of greater relaxation and different learning.
Formal school is one of the essential parts of the recovery process for the project beneficiaries, who, for the most part, have just gone through a stage in which they have either not attended school or have been unable to take advantage of its benefits given their situation.
They were victims or ran a grave risk of suffering some type of abuse, abandonment, exploitation, or any violation of their rights. For this reason, the judicial authority has requested her admission to the Home. Going back to school and living the life of “just another girl” is essential, but it entails problems of adaptation, rhythm, and learning. This is solved with reinforcement classes and supervised study during the hours they are not at school.
During the holidays, the time dedicated to formal school and school reinforcement is used. For other activities, trips are organized, and the usefulness is combined with pleasant, fun, and productive rest to grow and learn.
This year, the holidays began with a trip to the beach. The sea breeze, the salt water at tropical temperature, the waves and their sound, the heat, and the sand were a new experience for several of them. Although they were born and lived in a maritime region, they had never had the opportunity to “vacation” on a beach.
The city of Fortaleza offers cultural treasures that open horizons for the beneficiaries: museums, cultural centers, interactive exhibitions… An afternoon at the cinema introduced some of the beneficiaries to the “giant screen” and surround sound. To round off these days, the multidisciplinary care team organized workshops on arts, dance and music, sports, and outdoor games. Values such as teamwork, friendship, or solidarity were practiced during the game.
Another unusual activity for the home’s beneficiaries is tourism. So, the team organized a visit to Guaraciaba del Norte, taking advantage of the infrastructure of the Augustinian Recollect Family.
Located 300 kilometers from Fortaleza, within the beautiful Sierra de Ibiapaba, it is full of incredible landscapes, waterfalls, and fields of crops and flowers. With the hospitality of those who received the group, this adventure transformed into something positive for the little “first-time tourists.”
In reality, these holidays were full of learning, of moments not experienced before. There was not much rest, understood as “doing nothing,” but there were many new and different activities.
That produced a different kind of tiredness. Normality returned in August, but now the beneficiaries of Hogar Saint Mónica begin the new school year with more knowledge and experiences than at the end of the previous period.
