I am maria. I’m 23. I joined Cáritas as a volunteer at the age of seventeen, thanks to Cáritas Joven, so it can be said that Cáritas saw me come of age. Now I am a volunteer in the Childhood, Adolescent and Family Program and I can assure you that my work is not in vain. Working here gives you the possibility to perceive changes in the children similar to a “butterfly effect”, ie small actions that lead to big changes, and to see how each of the children progresses individually and as a group; this is the best reward. The best things are intangible, that’s why I prefer to be rewarded as I have been until now: with smiles, with new ideas at the beginning of the week, with hugs… and so on, a million other things.
It is something so special that you have to experience it to know what it is about, and the truth is that a Monday accompanied by school makes a Monday less difficult, it makes Monday smell like Saturday, because the program contains the words “thank you ” and “sorry” take on a different, special tone, they don’t sound like when you hear them on the street on any given day.
My experience here is, and I hope will continue to be, far beyond rewarding as the program has developed changes in me that I was not even aware of before, that what I receive is infinitely more than all I can give.
