“Thanks to YYGS, I realized I could be not only a scientist but a future leader. I was taught that you can find inspiration in the places you least expect to and that any subject can be fun with the right teacher. Thanks to YYGS, I will be more curious tomorrow than I was today.”
When the pandemic started, I wasn’t sure how could I help from the comfort of my own home. I felt devastated when they announced classes were going online. In Paraguay, a country with one of the highest rates of analphabetism in the region, we weren’t truly prepared to have online classes: most of the students and teachers didn’t have access to the resources needed.
Nevertheless, that didn’t stop the Ministry from throwing tons of homework to desperate students who weren’t really learning, so I decided to act. I created the first social project in my city, called Aprendamos Paraguay (in English, Let’s Learn Paraguay) to help those students who couldn’t afford a private tutor, by uploading education videos on different social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Youtube). Only two days after I launched it, I had reached almost 800 followers and more than 20 requests from students all around the country. I started uploading videos teaching differents concepts on math, physics, and chemistry and soon, I asked for help.
Nowadays, I have a staff of 8 volunteers that are in charge of social media management, video production and work organization. Together, we have constructed a network of more than 50 volunteers from all around the country and we continued the project, even when the school year has ending, forming alliances with other organizations as OMAPA (an organization that is in charge of the National Math Olympiads in Paraguay) in order to reach out to more young people.
On a daily basis, we received “thank you” messages from students who said they felt lost before they found us. Receiving that kind of messages and having such a wonderful team it’s what makes Aprendamos Paraguay so special, not only for me, but to those we bring a little bit of hope.