The Patabamba Academy Closeout.
By Yannick Wende, Program Director
And once again, time just flew by! I had barely realized how quick time went by and that we were already at the time in the year, where a project ends. In this case it was a bittersweet feeling to come to the day where this happened in our Patabamba Academy Project. I had seen this project throughout the year, battled in some days to solve problems that occurred in it and eventually grew a ton of love and interest for the community and the project itself.
I was bitter because I knew this was the end of the academy year and that it would be probably the last that I was seeing a lot of the kids until next year, but I was also very happy to be able to talk to them in out close out ceremony and to hear so many good comments about the project and not only that, but a pile of happy faces that, alongside all the achievements education achievements of the project made me sure that it was the close out of a very successful project, and that next year we will have even more success in bettering the education and hopes of these children.
The afternoon went by and we had a long chat with all the beneficiaries about the academy. The most surprising part of the ceremony is that when I asked to the children what we could improve to make the academy better. Most of them answered to have more days of Academy throughout the year! It was something that suggested me that the kids not only learn a lot through this project but have also grown such joy for it that it just made want to congratulate them and our team of teachers (which I eventually did). I think it is very important to measure the success of the project in terms of academic achievements, but to see this enthusiasm come out from the kids themselves is under my personal point of view a huge achievement to denote, and the joy it brought me to be able to see this, is hard to describe, but I hope that this blog post can transmit a little part of it.
Thank you for another great year Patabamba! See you next year!