The excitement of knowing that they would be visiting the UIS Broadcasting facilities was reason enough for the ten students of the Instituto del Oriente C ‘el Polo de Piedecuesta’ to get up earlier than usual and thus manage to be on time at the UIS Bucarica headquarters.

Cristian, Nasly, Emily, Sharid and their classmates, guided by Maritza Flórez Gutiérrez, a graduate in Basic Education with emphasis in Spanish Language from the UIS, participated for the first time in the recording of the program dedicated to women in the radio program ‘Paidópolis’ the city of children, after a journey of approximately 2 hours by bus, 45 of these on unpaved road and very affected by the rains of the last few days. 

Since last year they are part of this city that gives voice to the little ones and with whom they reflect on different topics, however, all the work had been done from the semi presentiality; so being in the cabin was a novelty and a pleasure.

From the production team led by Professor César Roa, director of the program and the School of Education UIS supported by students of the degrees in education, seek to bring the radio to school and vice versa using the airwaves to impact the educational communities of Bucaramanga and its metropolitan area and in the network put the audience of the 670 kHz, UIS AM, to listen to what they think and dream children of the fourth and fifth grades of several elementary schools.

The teacher Flórez Gutiérrez told us how long she has known about the Paidópolis project and the opportunity to participate, stating that “as a student of the degree, I knew about the project that the School had and I was able to join as a research assistant, I had the experience of working with several institutions in the metropolitan area, guiding the recording process in the booth, but suddenly it was a challenge to develop it virtually, with the support of César and his team we were able to participate last year, despite the rurality and lack of resources, and also motivate the kids to be part of it; They were happy because last year everything was done at the school, the first one was done by me and the other one of the paido-expedition was done by the Paidópolis team; this year when they confirmed to me that they had been chosen, they were very excited because it is a rural institution, where the official part does not have many possibilities to take the children to this kind of experiences”.

The experience of seeing things different from what they are used to is very positive, suddenly it leads them to reorient their future life projects, which is one of the purposes that I have as a teacher to carry out this type of activities with them”.

And this is demonstrated by Cristian Rojas Arenas, a 9 year old fourth grader who said he felt “happy, joyful and good to participate, I felt happy when they told me I was going to come to the booth, I was not nervous to record; I liked recording everything is very well decorated, I imagined the space, it was beautiful”.

Cristian was joined by Nasly Fernanda Gómez Flórez, also 9 years old and a classmate of the same grade and said “I was happy to come to record, I had no nerves, we talked about women and it is a topic that we had already talked about, the booth seemed nice, I had not been near a microphone”.

For Emily Sequeda Jaimes, 10 years old and who is in fifth grade, remembers last year’s participation and this year “I found it very cool, very nice everything and I liked that we can express ourselves with classmates, learn new things like that women are very important for society; I liked the booth, all very tidy and so that we can all be there”.

Finally, Sharid Lorena Rojas Jaimes, 9 years old, fourth grade student “it is the first time I participate in the program and I found it very cool to record, I got up early to come and everything is very nice, women are important for everyone and I learned the values of women”.

For this visit, the official requirements were fulfilled, such as the invitation from the production team to the institution, the permissions from the rectory and the transfer of the students to the UIS headquarters and back to the School. From the Instituto del Oriente headquarters C they are currently carrying out activities to recover the equipment in which every Thursday at 7:30 and 2:00 in the afternoon they can tune into the program, because at the end of 2021 they were victims of theft, leaving them without the equipment to listen to the program that entertains and teaches them, Paidópolis!