Social Work Student Interning in Costa Rica, Helps School "Street Children"
By Jennifer Hietpas, thespectator.com

Mid-day heat radiates off of city streets, busy with traffic, as a public bus beyond full-capacity drives by past the multitudes of people strolling the narrow sidewalks. An emaciated dog sniffs the air as it walks aimlessly. Within the crowd, children carry large woven baskets on their shoulders and peddle goods to passersby - jewelry, fruit, pasteries or trinkets, to name a few.

This illustration holds true for many larger cities, specifically in Latin America. It is not uncommon for children to work in place of getting an education in areas such as Central America, senior Maria Carvalho said.

Carvalho, a social work and Latin American Studies double major with a minor in Spanish, currently is interning abroad with Defensa de los Ni�nos Internacional, a non-profit children's rights organization in Moravia, Costa Rica.

Carvalho said social work fulfills her desire to help people.

"I don't believe in going around and changing things," she said. "I believe in showing them that they can change themselves."

"I think it's important for people to realize their strengths and social work has to do a lot with empowering people," she said.

"I can't really see myself doing anything else," she said about why she chose social work as a major. "I was always interested in sociology and psychology and social work kind of incorporates them."

The DNI office in Moravia is the only branch in Central America, Carvalho said, though there are other branches of the Switzerland-based organization in South America.

On a typical day, Carvalho said she works on campaigning for the organization by constructing sexual abuse flyers, or creates lesson plans or activities for the children. In the afternoon, she accompanies a psychologist and teacher from the organization to a neighboring village, La Abuelita.

"(It's) a smaller community, on the poorer side, and a lot of kids don't have the opportunity to go to school because they have to work" Carvalho said, "so we'll do activities with them like math, social studies or Spanish."

The schoolhouse in the capital, San Jose, has a much broader age range of students, she said. Parents can attend this school to see what their children are learning, though it is difficult to create lesson plans that accommodate such a wide age range. If students need help academically they can attend the school in La Abuelita, she said.

One of Carvalho's current projects is to make additions to a coloring book designed to educate children on sexual abuse, she said.

"There are coloring books about sexual abuse, but (they) didn't include anything about abuse by familiar people," she said. Therefore, her job is to create pages in Spanish with scenarios where sexual predators are familiar figures in their lives, such as a family member or friend.

Previously an assistant for the UW-Eau Claire Center for International Education program in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, Carvalho contributed to organizing a fund for children from El Fortin, Nicaragua, whose families lack the necessary funds to send them to school.

With her help, these children were given things such as school uniforms, shoes, school supplies and backpacks.

Similarily, a contributor that funds DNI in addition to grants is Florida Bebida, a Costa Rican beverage company that donates its resources in the form of student scholarships and school supplies.

Carvalho's lineage originates with her parents' Indian heritage and follows through to her childhood in Kenya. During the Gulf War at the age of 9 her family decided to move to the United States, Carvalho said, adding that while they were concerned about the war, it did not play a major role in their decision to relocate.

"My dad (simply) wanted to give his family a better opportunity for a better education." Carvalho said.

"It was hard to leave my family, but it was exciting to be going somewhere new," she said. "I guess I didn't really know what I was getting into," she added, laughing.

While Swahili is the official language of Kenya, English is widely spoken. For this reason, assimilation into the culture of the United States was less of a shock, she said.

After a brief stay in California with her uncle, Carvalho's family - composed of her parents, Dominique and Stella, and brothers, Bill and Joaquim - moved to Wisconsin, where they would eventually settle in Eau Claire. Currently, her family manages the Highlander Inn off of Mac Arthur Avenue.

"I must say I've got a nice daughter," Stella Carvalho said of her daughter. "She's done so well all these years ... she's a very hard worker."

Although Carvalho said her schedule is demanding during the school year, she still finds time to relax and unwind.

"(My friends and I) go camping every summer for a week up north near Lake Superior ... It's our time when we can all get together, especially now that we're so spread out. So far it's lasted six years."

Study abroad coordinator Susan Lochner said of Carvalho: "She's quiet when you first get to know her, and has a wicked sense of humor once you really get to know her."

Along with her "wicked" sense of humor, Carvalho said she enjoys a good plate of spicy food.

"The spicier, the better." she said, adding that her tastes are catered around her mother's cooking, "She cooks a lot of Indian food."

Reflecting on her experiences as a social work major and the places it has brought her, she said that the internship opportunity has provided her with a new frame of reference.

"It's not that I learned necessarily about myself, that I've learned how to self reflect and see what things mean to me."