My voluntary affair

My voluntary affair 

April 7, 2013

By: Gina Yoryet Roman

When I was about eighteen, right after High School, my Peruvian friend Marlene and I, were looking for recreational activities to complement our curricular agenda. We were young and wanted to take dance lessons, go out, meet people, travel, do fun things, but due to our low paid part time jobs, money was an impending obstacle leaving us with less choices. 

One day, when she was driving me home in her shiny red Honda Civic, this idea struck me all of a sudden. “That’s it! Let’s do charity work in our free time!” “What! “Why would I put time and energy into something that is not going to generate a revenue!?” I was thrown off by her reaction and my counterargument was this, “Why the heck not! There are a lot of organizations and communities who are in desperate need of an extra hand, we would be doing it for a good cause, yes, it wouldn’t hurt to make money but I don’t mind not profiting if I am making a difference in someone’s life. On top of that, we will keep ourselves busy, and the sense of fulfillment that we’d get by helping, is priceless. That is my intake because I’ve done voluntary work on and off since earlier in my adolescence.” 

“Let me think about it then!” She responded skeptically.

She must’ve absorbed my words very deeply whereas the following week, we were on a quest looking for different institutions to give a lending hand. I cannot revive how many places we checked out, I do remember the one we immediately got drawn to, R. P. Animal Shelter, located in Rohnert Park California. As a dog and bunny lover, I couldn’t help avoid a few tears rolling down my cheeks during the tour one of the coordinators gave us. It hurt me to see those loving and loyal creatures in a very tiny cage, their eyes screamed at us for attention and caresses that I didn’t hesitate to say "YES!" within five minutes from starting our tour,. Tthis is just what I’ve been looking for, I will join your team of volunteers!” I couldn't help blurting out right away.

From there on, we went into the office, filled out some forms, signed and the very next day, we were hands on cleaning the cages, trimming the dogs’ hair, feeding, bathing them, taking them out for walks, playing with them and spending quality time with them. It’s been too long to put together how long that experience went on for, the only thing that comes to my mind, is that it was through that affair that my love for animals further developed and became stronger. It gave me a sense of being useful, making my existence a sense of direction. I don’t base my happiness upon anything or anyone but events like this, bring joy and serenity to my soul.

The next step in my avocation was working with senior citizens. I worked voluntarily at a retirement home where I was in charge of reading them short stories, chatting with them, combing their hair and keeping them clean, feeding the ones who were unable to and spend time with them. This assignment happened very quickly because I got too emotional. I couldn’t bear the pain of seeing those elderly losing their memory day by day. It was too strong of an impact for me...so I left. That decision haunted me for a long time because I felt as if I had left them high-and-dry. I literally abandoned them. To this day I still think and pray about those and all those aging. The thought of getting older and losing all functions is very daunting but it is another one of the processes human beings have to go through. 

After making a transition to Sacramento California, my work agenda, training, my family, and partying, were not enough to keep me still. Therefore I soon went on the look for new voluntary activities to complement the previously mentioned duties. Through my second oldest sister I joined the Latino Leadership Network, a group of Latinas who met once a week to plan, strategize and come up with ideas and funds to support, guide and mentor teen Latinas to pursue their dreams and get an education. Many of those Latinas came from large low-leveled immigrant families who lacked the financial means to pay for their children’s education and reach the American Dream. Our responsibility as Latina leaders, was to mentor one or more young women, and each one of us had a mentor as well. That network was one of the greatest fulfillments of all time. After seeing the results of all our efforts, it sure paid off!

From that time on, I continued on my quest doing working voluntarily at different places when my school and work agenda gave room for it.

In 2007-2008, I became part of the team of volunteers at AMSOC, where I taught conversation classes on Saturdays, I joined the writers’ team La Voz, their monthly magazine/newsletter. I helped bring new members, I attended some of their events and invited friends. It was a very unforgettable experience where I met and helped many people, but overall, I had fun and felt very useful!

Shortly after that, almost five years ago, many unfortunate events took place that I sought for emotional sustenance in different ways at no avail...nothing put my soul at ease until a friend of mine invited me to F. S. S. P., and to Acortar Distancias, in which I immediately became interested. I got involved by giving fitness classes to the women in the El Coli and surrounding areas. Women who struggle day to day with very serious issues such as: physically and psychologically abusive husbands/partners, troubled children, alcohol, drugs, violence right outside their door. In addition to that,  they lack the financial means to move out of those neighborhoods unable to make a difference in their lives. 

When I first started going there, I was having second thoughts because of the thirty to forty minute drive. One day when I got a flat tire, I was cursing going that far out but as soon as I saw those hungry eyes looking right at me enthusiastically waiting to break a sweat, they were my drive to give the best of me without expecting anything in return. To make a difference in those women’s lives as that would later define one of the purposes I am to fulfill one day. 

A few months later when I interviewed the founder, Magui Merino for one of the magazines I used to write for, I learned a lot more about her project.

GYR: “Tell me, who is Magui Merino, what is her purpose, what is Acortar Distancias, why?”

Magui Merino:

“The workshops we offer to parents are focused on improving their self-esteem, we also teach them about family values and education, self motivational, spiritual education, as well as “domingos familiares”one Sunday of each month in where all our volunteers and students get together not only to spend time with their own families but they get to mingle around with other families as well. We give them the opportunity to get to know each other so they become conscious of the high number of families living below the poverty level; we encourage them to help one another. We have to really pound these morals into their heads because these families grow up lacking many things, most of the parents are illiterate, and they are surrounded by violence, sexual or psychological abuse. Therefore the upcoming generations tend to follow the same pattern because they grew up seeing this so they think that it is normal behavior.”

“We also offer “Programa de Servicios integrales” a program where people receive different types of assistance “consultoría general”, in areas such as psychological assistance, legal assistance, information about other helping institutions such as how they can upgrade their homes at a minimal or zero cost.

“Our main objective is to get children and mainly young adults out of the streets, gangs, violence, theft, drugs and alcohol, bring them to “Acortar Distancias” and teach them morals, values, good habits, solidarity, respect, and form them into better human beings when they are faced with obstacles and tough situations. Another one of our purposes is to motivate them unleash their potentials and become successful beings. Help them see and reach outside their boundaries.

“In 2009 Acortar Distancias was funded by the DIF (“Desarrollo Integral de la Familia”), family planning and development they lent us a building (5,359.786 square meters) along with another building adjacent to it located on Cerro del Colli, Ave Prolongacion Guadalupe, where we moved in June of this year and it has been a blessing for us and for all the families in this marginalized area of Zapopan.”The demand for Development Centers like ours increases day by day, so we want to make it our goal to assist up to 700 people daily by merging both dwellings.”

“We have many projects for the near future, one of them is to increase the reading literacy so we are in the process of opening a library, we are asking schools to donate books to start a reading club/class and teach adults how to read. We are doing this little by little and when we start getting overwhelmed, we remember that Rome wasn’t built in one day, plus we have many people who have been there for us since the beginning making it possible for us to reach all our goals.”

At the beginning I was somewhat nervous by Magui’s strong presence but within a few minutes I got a hold of myself. As the professional investigator, I brought a pen, my little note pad to jot down notes, and my radio as a backup in case I missed something. A journalist friend of mine came along with me and he gave me a pat on the back when we left Acortar Distancias. He said to me, “I could tell your nervousness at first but you gained your posture right away, the only thing I noticed was that you held the interview in Spanish BUT you wrote everything in English!” 

I said, “So!?” “What’s wrong with that!” “

He replied, "That tells me that you are not from Guadalajara, ha, ha!” 

After hearing about their project to open a library, I got involved in it, accounting that as one of my lifetime dreams, to open a library and teach people how to read. I had the coordinators at Acortar Distancias write and hand me out a letter to go to libraries and to the F. I .L . Festival del libro de Guadalajara that takes place every November. I visited different bookstores, not a single one gave me a yes, I sent massive email messages to all my contacts, only one of them gave me a box of books, I contacted Nubia Macias the F. I. L. Director, her assistant was in charge to give me a small box of books. I handed them out to  Acortar Distancias. I gave up on that project because things were happening very slow, because of my tight agenda and because they are too far out. 

About a year later, someone else became the coordinator and I was contacted to hold a meeting with the other coordinators in charge of that project. We had a very productive meeting, worked on it briefly until I got an email from that coordinator letting us know that she was no longer going to be working with us. I emailed, contacted the other ladies two, three times, but didn’t get a response, and gave up once again.

I later looked for other voluntary activities, soon re-encountering a friend from Wisconsin who offered to join him and his group of friends to visit orphanages on Sundays. And so we went on a weekly, and every other week y week mission to visit children, play with them. We brought them candy, goodies, clothes or shoes we had collected. It was a marvelous experience!

Later when I reconciled with F. S. S. P. I started slowly getting involved in doing small volunteer duties. Now as a part of it, I¿ve taught English to two seminarians, I want to teach Spanish to those coming in May, I do a little cleaning here and there, I’ve worked on a few translationsand other small tasks.

My goal is to never give this part of me behind (doing volunteer work). The same way I don’t want to every give up praying, my family, working, working out, writing and reading. All of these factors are my defining drive and they make me feel whole.