Rotary/Caritas "English for Children" Program

Embassy, Caritas and Rotary volunteers lead games in English during the English for Children program.

Representatives from Rotary Club Madrid and Caritas with some of the Embassy volunteers

Rotary Club Madrid, in conjunction with Caritas, started an English for Children program for immigrant children from South America and Morocco living in Spain in October 2010.  Each day after school the children go to Caritas for help with homework, English classes and games in English.

10:50 a.m. Caritas students arrived by bus at the embassy with two Caritas teachers and two Rotary Club volunteers.  There were four groups of students from ages 4-13 in beginning their day in the cafeteria decorating paper bags with markers and stickers for their soon to be earned "treats".  The children enjoyed meeting some of the embassy children who participated in the event, they were heard introducing themselves to each other and one student drew a U.S. flag and Moroccan flag on his bag.  Ambassador and Mrs. Solomont arrived at the cafeteria to greet the students.  Ambassador quoted the book "Good Night Moon" from memory while Mrs. Solomont held up the book and turned the pages.  Volunteers escorted students to various game stations such as origami, 5-pin soccer, dress-up relay, and bean bag toss while other volunteers ran the games.  Each game station had treats and stickers for the participants.

At noon, the students returned to the cafeteria for Hostess cupcakes and Capri-Sun juice.  After snacks, students participated in more games.

12:45 p.m. students returned to the cafeteria for a farewell gift of a book.  The students loved receiving a book of their own to take home and could be seen trying to read the books at once.

Many thanks to the Embassy community who donated approximately 400 books to Caritas for the English for Children project and to the 20 embassy community volunteers who helped make the project a huge success.

Felecia Martínez