As some of you may know, my original side project (a year and a half ago) was to do research in methods of bilingual speech-language pathology. This was part of my reason for wanting to be placed in Santa Fe, as one of the universities has a SLP (fonoaudiologia) program and I could potentially partner with them. But through my work at the Bilingualism and Pscycholinguistics Lab at Northwestern, I realized how unrealistic it might be to start and finish a project unless I had more of a foundation than my original vague questions. I also started diving back into and getting more interested in global health – my college major – and decided I wanted to pursue it further. I find myself being able to satisfy both interests! At the institute I’m working at, I’m currently preparing a 3-part workshop series on language & identity and how it influences language acquisition – a twist on my original idea.
I proposed my new main side project a few months before coming to Argentina – Health Access in Marginalized Communities. The idea was to learn about what access to health resources in marginalized communities looked like here, and ideally latch onto an existing project and become a support, specifically investigating how thse communities can be further integrated into society and gain greater access to health. I didn’t specify a community because I didn’t know what communities I would find in Santa Fe or where I could serve. Initially I proposed working with immigrant communities, elderly populations, and/or children. If you read my last post, you know where I’ve landed so far.
To recap where I’m currently volunteering: CILSA, an NGO that advocates for the inclusion of marginalized populations such as children, youth, people in socially vulnerable situations, and people with handicaps through a wide variety of programs. Specifically, I am working with “Me juego por vos”, a multidisciplinary program that leads recreational activities for kids of all backgrounds, with and without handicaps, and in socially vulnerable situations. To be honest, I don’t feel needed. And while I want to be useful and lend support, isn’t that the best situation? That they don’t need me and the project and organization live on long after I leave, as it has been existing for 50 years. That was part of the motivation for wanting to join an existing program, to be a part of something sustainable and borne out of the local community’s initiative. Right now I’m focused on building relationships with my co-workers and the children, and asking lots of questions. Eventually I want to do more hard research and branch out into other programs, but for now I want to focus on getting to know my specific setting well from the community itself. From what I hear, CILSA also holds workshops I can attend on training and advocacy in Argentina that I want to check out. Stay tuned!
It's a Par-tea 