Binhi

For my Binhi, we went to Guanella center. Guanella is a home for people with special needs. Most of them are abandoned and they were left there and Guanella takes care of them now. One of the residents always says Jollibee, since his older brother left him there and he told him that he would go back and he would just get Jollibee. When I first chose Guanella, I was hesitant. I was only able to choose this site, because I got the last batch during the enlistment and this was the only one available. I had no choice. Plus, I thought working with people with special needs would be tiring,stressful and dragging. As one of the five tenets of injustice says that prejudice is natural.

Well, I was wrong. Yes, it was tiring, but it was fun and fulfilling. For the first day we went there and made paper airplanes and played with them. The next week, we helped them with the chores first. Then, played in the court patintero and danced. While, we were doing these you can see really that the kids were happy, since they have someone to play with and the staff were relieved that we were there as this was like some kind of a rest for them as the kids have other people to play with.

Since, they were people with special needs like autism and down syndrome, they said that routine is a big deal for them. Breaking their routine may cause tantrums and other disturbances. I guess this is their habitus. They have a daily routine that makes them do their chores. And, when we were helping them with the chores like sweeping the driveway they were very possessive of the broom and dustpan as if saying that it was their chore not yours. Also, because of this routine we need to wait for a while before we could play as play starts at 9am for them and we were a little early.

Also, because of their disabilities they can get a little rowdy at times. There was this one kid who kept pinching everyone and Juancho got pinched 11 times. There was also Danny. He was a big kid I think he had autism . He cried, when his paper airplane got stuck. But,he was very sweet he would always greet us with hugs and would always be smiling.

The experience that the 2 Saturdays we spent in Guanella was great. It was fun interacting with them, even if I initially thought that it would have been dragging and tiring. The experience really helped me change my initial thoughts, as they were really sweet and welcoming. Playing with them was also fun and was a nice way to get some seperation from school and other things. Also, we must consider in Guanella that most kids were left there, since their parents or guardians were less fortunate. I think that is where intersectionality came in to play as they were not only disabled but less fortunate as well.

All in all, my experience in Binhi was great. It is good that Ateneo has programs like this to help marginalized sectors and also expose us to things like this. The lessons in Socsci were very evident in my Binhi experience. They helped me understand the context that the residents of Guanella were in and it also gave insight on how to help them now as a student and in the future. My Binhi experience also made me realize that we must be kind and understanding towards others.