The Impact Of Traveling Abroad
Within two weeks of my stay in Rio de Janeiro, Institute for the International Education of Students planned a field trip for the students to take a tour of the favela known as Santa Marta. If you are curious to see what Santa Marta looks like, you can find Michael Jackson’s music video for They Don’t Care About Us on YouTube. Half of the music video was filmed at the favela. Admittedly, the only knowledge I had of favelas was what I saw when I watched City of God on Netflix. To say the least, I was trembling when I reached the start of the favela.
Our tour guide Sheila, gave us a different perspective of favelas. Sheila grew up in Santa Marta and still lives there, meaning she has witnessed the struggles and triumphs of the favela throughout the years. I learned that there was a point in time when children as young as five and six were addicted to cocaine, or dealing drugs. Many kids could not wait for delayed gratification. They dropped out of school early and started working to help their parents.
Even so, there were also good things. The favela is like a family, a community of people who know one another’s name and will never let someone go without eating. In times of trouble, the favela comes together to devise a plan and fix the problem. While I had many awe-striking experiences in Rio, nothing made me evolve as a person and student more than the tour of Santa Marta.
A seed was planted and began to flourish that same night. As I wrote in my journal about the things I saw that day and how much I wanted to make it big in life to be able to fund an NGO or help out the residents of Santa Marta and other favelas, I had an epiphany.
I worked as an after-school teacher in Miami for three years, so I decided that I could help by tutoring the kids in the favela and teach them English. This was the most practical way I could help because even if they dropped out of school they would at least know another language and get paid more for being able to translate. After a few weeks, Sheila and I met up and agreed on my start date and she gathered the kids who wanted to learn English or needed help with math.
Since Rio, I decided to dedicate a year of my time to helping the students in low income areas here in Miami with City Year. I realized that if I can help children abroad, I can also lend my time to helping children in my own community. After all, one should try hard to lead by example. Maybe that way, I’ll pave the way for others to start helping children in their own communities that really need it.
Svetlanna Valdes, 21, who graduated from North Campus in 2014 with an associate’s degree in pre-law, earned a double degree in political science and philosophy from Penn State University this year. Valdes is volunteering with City Year from August 2016 to June 2017.
