Community Outreach with Santuario Inmaculada Concepción

Student Role

Participants in this program will have the opportunity to live in the La Bandera neighborhood, located in the municipality of San Ramón. They will work directly with the “Inmaculada Concepción” Parish, led by Father Matteo Martinelli, a member of the Franciscan order. Students are expected to be part of all the activities regularly held by the parish to assist and bring together the community of La Bandera. This includes work with children, winter camp, work with the elderly, weekly work with the homeless in the area and work collaboratively with other Chilean university students living and working there as well. The parish has been implementing an extracurricular program aimed primarily at caring for children who do not have access to daycare while their parents are at work. NDBridge participants will be actively involved, working full time to achieve the higher objective of making the lives of the La Bandera people better. Additionally, students will be collaborating on a weekly basis with Domingo Savio Foundation, which is actively committed to assist families and their children who have no support networks and so they have created a program meant to accompany children in their afterschool hours and with elderly people in deep need of support and company as well. La Bandera is a community made of very vulnerable people, with a high degree of poverty, lack of access to good work opportunities, quality education and quality healthcare, so the job done by the Parish and its volunteers is of paramount importance and they are in constant need of support.