This 2020 we have been through trying times, but before the pandemic started, we had a chance to go to this amazing place. Fundana is an ONG dedicated to saving and helping kids who are in rough situations at home, serving as a witness protection program, or being the first place that some unlucky children arrive after losing their parents. Venezuela is a country that has been in a bad situation from around six or seven years but has around twenty years of irregularities in police investigations, prosecution, and crime resolution, because of this exists the need for places like this to protect, feed, and take care of kids that even have families outside but not the right environment to assure the safety. Because of all of this, we couldn’t take pictures of the activities as we wished; the only way to be safe for them was to be hidden.
Our experience was irreplaceable, it was inevitable to forget that those kids maybe had been living harder lives than us. They presented behavior unconventionals to emotions, excitement, and new things. We went there with some food, donations, toys, and candies at the beginning but later we went to give them an art class with our graphic designer at the time. It is an amazing place, everything is colorful, organized, and most important at all it feels safe.
Fundana has several places where it assigns each case to assemble a species of community between the kids. All of them live in what they call “Villas.” The big ones live in normal houses, they have their own kitchen, living room, bathrooms for girls and boys, rooms, and bed separately for each kid and even toys that belong to specific kids. Fundana has around seven or eight villas in this headquarters.
You can find cases from babies that barely can eat on their own, to grown-ups, that have 11 years old maximum. For the little ones, the villas are different, with the biggest rooms, more space to the bathroom, and little kitchens; where the godmother takes care of the baby bottles. The godmothers to the older ones also cook, clean and help them with their duties, to hers it is more than work (Because they have a payment, schedules, and shift days) They adopt them as their own and guide them as long as they are living there.
We fell in love with some kids, we had a broken heart for some cases, but most of all we live an unforgettable experience that makes us realize how much we have, and how lucky we are.
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