Reading skills - CHRISTINE BUSHAWAY -COMMUNITY SERVICE VOLUNTEER

CHRISTINE BUSHAWAY -
COMMUNITY SERVICE VOLUNTEER     

     Christine Bushaway is a bright, positive, warm, friendly teenager. She seems just a little older than her real age of nineteen, but apart from this, no one would think there was anything unusual about her.

      But, as I found out when I went to interview her at her flat in east London, Christine Bushaway is no ordinary teenager at all.

     First of all, she works as a Community Service Volunteer. The CSV is a government volunteer agency and its workers help people in the community who are having problems or are less able to look after themselves than other people. A CSV worker might help old people, young people or people with special needs. It's not an easy job: you need to be emotionally strong as well - and you don't get paid.
    Christine helps in a school for children with disabilities* and learning difficulties. She works with the teacher in the classroom, helping the children through painting, maths and English, taking them out to play and bringing them back in again. The job brought many challenges for her. 'At first I'd never seen children with severe* special needs', she says. 'So it was quite shocking for me at first. I was very sad to see these children, the way they were. Some of them have emotional difficulties. Some of them get violent, and they jump about and hit and kick, but they don't understand what they're doing, so you have to be careful with them. Some have physical disabilities, and are in wheelchairs. Sometimes they're really intelligent, and it's their physical disabilities that are holding them back.'

     But, as if that weren't enough, there's even more to Christine than this. She does her work as part of a scheme called 'Give and Take'. This CSV scheme is for young people who have been under the care of the services themselves.

     I could not believe that Christine had ever been under the care of social services - she seemed so strong, I could not imagine her needing anyone's help. But she told me that she had been in and out of care all through her childhood, 'because', she said 'my Mum had four nervous breakdowns'. Her mother's condition had been due to alcohol-and drug-dependence. When Christine was sixteen, she left home and went to see the social services, who first placed her in a foster home* and, when she was older, helped her find her own flat.

     Now, her mother is recovered and lives only a few doors away, and Christine loves her work. 'I feel really welcome at the school, and wanted, and feel that I can do the job really well. I've never met so many nice people that want to know me'. 

     She says she would recommend anyone to do community service work, for the sense of enjoyment and fulfillment it gives. 'But', she adds, 'it's not for everybody.'

disabilities - plysical or mental problems; severe - very bad; foster home - a home with people who agreed to be her parents instead of her real ones

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