Once more, I could realize that the ways God presents to us are very different. My dialogue with Him are deep and my questions… never end. Last Thursday I was sad because somebody close to me committed suicide and, if I can hardly accept death, this turned me into sorrow and desperation. But I met Daniel, and through his beautiful eyes and his words I found the answer, and peace. Daniel taught me, in a couple of hours, that life can put rocks and logs in our way, but if we love life… we can get everything. With his huge tenderness and his strength of will, he faced the pain of being disabled. He told me: “this wheel chair taught me a lot…” While he was talking to me difficultly, thick tears went down my face; because I felt that “my” Father was talking to me by means of himself. On Friday, when I woke up, I felt sad again, but as I was crying, Daniel’s face and strength gave me the necessary strength to face the new day. And if my legs are strong, my health is excellent and my mind works; I have no right to ask life to give me an explanation… because I can run, jump, laugh, and hold those who I love; because I am free, and I must thank all these gifts. So, I dried my tears, jumped out of bed, stared the majestic sky and started to live a new day in my life. Volunteer in the Area of Helpers. Goodness House.

As volunteers of Father Alberto Hurtado Hospice, we want to share with you a little of our experience. When we came into the Foundation (Manos Abiertas - Open Hands) our country faced difficult times. Economic problems were adding to the social ones and to the lack of values.

The reality showed us that, more people and more people were forced to live marginally; and they suffered the indifference of our society, being in a way marginated or at least held back.

In spite of all this, we understood that behind that painful social abandonment, there was a man who needed to start again, and we did not only understand that it was not enough to feel sorry for that social reality, but it was also necessary to do something for our dispossessed brother.

We knew that we wanted to do something for the most needed people at that moment, and we could make it possible for the invitation from Open Hands.
A proposal of joint work, so that we were all conscious of the need we had from each other; and so that all those who had felt excluded up to the moment, knew they were all necessary, and that we all DID trust them all.

The experience of taking part as volunteers of the Hospice is enriching and gratifying, since we all receive thousands times more than what we give; and that gives us happiness and strengthens our heart.

Today, we feel part of the Hospice, and one more in the people who form it. This house is, in the first place of the people from the street and for them; but it is also ours, because in a way, the men from the streets arrived to Open Hands, and they allowed us to be part of their lives. They let us reach them, and so, day after day, with everybody’s generosity, we could carry out our objectives and the Foundation’s reason for being.

The obvious growth of the Hospice taught us that many times even though the events are adverse and difficult, we can fight and go a long way. So, everyday we try to get over the small obstacles, as well as to face our own fears of failure. We want to thank all those who make this project possible, for being with us and supporting us from wherever they are and they can.

This is just a testimony of faith and love.

Volunteers Group.
Father Alberto Hurtado Hospice.

To belong to the family of Open Hands is in itself a God’s blessing. As a member of the Mother Therese Team, the feeling of belonging is strong and exciting. The group warmth, the people we visit, and the gifts that God was giving me during all this time in this lovely task, are invaluable for me. In a world, in which only the bad outstands (because the good is silent) to meet with people that speak my “language” of the heart, makes me have hopes of a better world everyday. The volunteering has enriched my soul with an unimaginable world, only by feeling it, you can get to know it. One day I found that my visitor, the person I accompany in her solitude, was, in fact, a need for me. To see her becoming happy with my arrival, makes me feel happier than her. At least this is the way I feel. Surely, as times go by, somebody will replace me; but in my heart whatever I’ve lived as a volunteer will never be deleted. Volunteer in the Mother Therese from Calcutta Team.

"Little Blanket"

José "Blanket" in your colored squares
You break the innocence at night.
And the thunders that plague the ornaments in your such a tired neck,
Are cryings that the deaf indifference
Tears every night.

Without any reason we left you
So that in the jet-black smoke of your fire
You look for crows of hope.
You feed those crows with your bags,
And they come back, where
not even the richest ones can reach them.

I don’t understand you Jose “Blanket”,
Neither the spots in your squares,
Nor your eyes,
Nor your beard,
Nor the wound on your soles,
So cold, not for naked
But so cold for lack of love.

You went so far away.
There … further than the lords,
Than the taxes, the cities.
So far away from this land, this blood,
So that our tied up minds cannot even try to take you.

You don’t hurt me Jose “Blanket”,
Neither the sound of your womb,
Nor the trembling of your eyelashes.
(Your smile transmit me that Gift you received and keeps you alive)

Yes, every stronger beat whips my heart,
The garbage of the system we live in,
And your story
And my story
And the past of the past of ours.

Don’t tell me, Jose “Blanket”,
About your past if you don’t want to.
Don’t say what destiny throw you away
From wherever you come from,
I just want your glance
Of fairies, angels and elves,
That erases me from this shit:
You are worth as much as you have.

Don’t tell me, Jose “Blanket”,
That you do not have
just a little of your dirt
to fulfill the temples,
so miserly clean,
of those crested beings.

We draw your destiny.
And today we have a pain in the retina
Because of the image of the blanket, so wasted,
Of the back, so curved,
Of the life, so blown down.

Pull along your heels without shame,
The roughness and the ways
To those faces of demagogue smiles!
And the quiet consciences,
Flatulent showing off, pretending not to see and hypocrisy!

Don’t let your dogs show
That men of noble soul exist no more.

There are still people.

Please, tell me, “Little Blanket”:
That there are still people
Further than your plastic ruined shoes,
Further than your scanty supper, repeated,
In spite of the children that run away without knowing your smile…

Shout at loud, “Little Blanket”: there are still people!

Seekers Team.
Father Alberto Hurtado Hospice.

Hello! My name is Verónica Videla. I take part in the psychology team that works in the Beatified Hurtado Center. During the first half of this year I coordinated, together with Graciela Bartomeo (psycho pedagogy), a workshop of folk music for children from 6 to 10 years old. In the psychology team we are working in order to offer preventive spaces, which point to, among other things, emphasize and strengthen the healthy aspects in the person. That is why we insist in offering a space for entertainment and games, therapeutic in addition, may be (even for the coordinators), but mainly recreative.
Having the opportunity of living everything what the children have to teach us, when we are open to listen to them and to look at them, is a beautiful present. All of them have aptitudes and musical skills. We only have to offer them a musical space.

In just four months of work, the children have achieved wonderful things. In the first workshop, they didn’t even dear to sing, and after three months, they did not only sing tuned, but they also danced, played the drums and acted. Each one was finding and choosing what he best liked to do: singing, dancing, leading the group, playing the drums,
Acting, designing fancy dresses. In this way they have attained a folk music band, in which each child has been essential for the songs to be nice.

Many things have surprised me: the perseverance the children had to come to the essays every week, all the brilliant ideas which were enriching the songs ( a girl warned me that the introductions in folk music had to go accompanied by clapping the hands), the help of the parents, so moving when it comes from those who have less ( a mother made the dresses for many children), the attention and the patience of the children when we divided into groups that had to wait for their turn…

Coordinating the workshop has been an unforgettable experience for me, difficult to be transmitted in words. We enjoyed it a lot, we share beautiful moments, and I learnt a lot from them. I’ve felt like a girl once more, dancing and singing with the children. Continuously, the workshop itself stopped being essential for me, and I enjoyed looking at the happy and contagious faces of the children, who sang with all the strength from their lungs, they laughed at themselves, they were kids.

In the consulting room in the neighborhood I see many children who cannot be: They must take care of their brothers and sisters, of the house, of troubles of any kind, even of their parents in many cases. We all know that children need, to grow up healthy, the chance of playing and having fun, and we, adults, are responsible for looking after them and developing these contexts for recreation essential for them to improve.
I thank everyone who relied on me, and helped me to develop this space which bets to open the hands to hold the children’s rights.

Volunteer at the Music Workshop, Open Hands, Buenos Aires.

webdesign: nicolasromero