My mission at the school of the “last chance”

I have worked for 5 years as a tutor and a catechist in a Socio-therapeutic Centre for teenagers in Warsaw. This centre consists of

• a secondary school
• hostel for pupils who are not from Warsaw and for pupils with difficult family situations
• other classes: therapy, help with homework etc.Tutors and teachers want to create this centre as a place for teenagers who need special, pedagogical and psychological help. Teenagers face various problems: school phobia, neurosis, depression, anorexia, bulimia, alcoholism, mental illnesses, physical and sexual violence in family. There are teenagers who can’t deal with very complicated family situations. There are also intelligent pupils with a wide range hobbies and skills but who at the same time have learning difficulties, such as deficiency in development, disorders of concentration etc.In our centre there are some teenagers who take drugs in order to forget about their reality. Some have been at closed centres for addicts and who want to stay drug-free, and we welcome them gladly.

Our centre is a small place and thanks to this we can provide a feeling of security. Nobody feels anonymous.I work individually with each pupil, with his or her family and with a whole class (socio-therapeutic group). In this mission, the confidence that God acts in each person accompanies me. I believe in goodness of everybody I meet. Everyday I learn to trust God more and more and to believe that everything has meaning, that God leads them and me in this mission.

I have been asked to organize religion classes at this school. There are only a few persons who participate. Among them there are many unbelievers or people who look for the answer of whether God exists or not. The number of participants increases. They come because they want to talk, to ask, to find God and themselves. Now, I prefer sharing the life of faith to convincing them.

Teenagers need authority, good relations with adults, clear boundaries and a great heart. I learn to love them with a cordial and strong love.

My work with the socio-therapeutic group is very important for me. I know that the youth have a stronger influence on each another than do adults. That is why I often refer to their opinion and ask for their help. I would not be able help with many problems without them.

I have contacts with the families of pupils. The parents are often helpless facing the problem of their children, and they need to strengthen their position as a mother and a father. We need plenty of time to gain their confidence. In the beginning they avoid contact, they deny their problems. They have heard from many institutions they are bad parents. I try to help them to develop the best in themselves, above all their love and care for their children. It is important to help them to find a job, to straighten out the situation of their pension etc. In time they begin to speak about their problems and then can begin to look for new solutions.

My mission at our centre helps me to believe that the way of development for people, for “excluded people”, is possible. I experience that God can find every person. The most important lesson I learn in my work is that an ordinary and everyday love is the basic language, the irreplaceable Word of God – the simplest and the most difficult Word.

Violetta Zając rscj
Province of Poland