ARGENTINAAlimentar Enseñando
The Project
This non-profit organization, located in the Province of Buenos Aires, was established to help underprivileged families whose situation had worsened as a result of the Argentinean economic crisis of 2001. Its mission is to aid these families through various programs:
- Nutritional: The center provides food to these families on a daily basis and in addition, offers the mothers cooking classes aimed at teaching ways to improve their children’s nutrition.
- Educational: The organization works with teachers and professors that give classes to the children thanks to an agreement with the Ministry of Education. In addition, they have hired teachers specializing in kids with learning disabilities and mental retardation.
- Sports: The center offers various sports programs primarily geared to preadolescent and adolescent kids.
- Health: They control and supervise the health of the kids, their mothers, and any pets living with them.
The Children
These children live in an area of extreme poverty and generally, have certain characteristics in common: large families, missing fathers, and young uneducated mothers. This situation usually brings about consequences such as dropping-out of school, malnutrition, premature pregnancies, child abuse, and domestic violence. Alimentar Enseñando’s (Feeding while Teaching) goal, through its various programs, is to help these children become healthy and productive members of society.
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Santiago del Estero
The Project
When we arrived in Santiago del Estero, we found a simple “snack table”, where the children received a glass of milk and a piece of bread,
we transformed it in a fully operating “community center” where the children had three daily meals, received health care and schooling assistance.
In 2006, the Hogar Madre Gerina was transferred to a religious congregation that has three schools in
Santiago del Estero. They decided to improve the installations and
funded the San Vicente School and Dining Hall. In 2006 they built the first classrooms and opened first and second grade. Since then, they have added one grade every year
and will do it until they complete the primary school. This school complements the
Padre Víctor Preschool that the congregation runs in the same La Catolica Neighborhood.
We also incorporated this preschool to our assistance program.
The school and preschool educate around 300 children and provide lunch to another 100 children from the neighborhood. They not only receive education an meals but also healthcare.
The Children
The children live in Santiago del Estero, a very poor province in Argentina. They come from extremely needy families, usually suffering from unemployment,
drug addiction and violence.
Apoyo Escolar San Francisco
The Project
Provides educational support, recreational activities and two daily meals to more than 90 children who go to the center in the mornings and attend
regular schools in the afternoon. Its mission is to prevent school desertion and the grave consequences of the children growing up in the streets. They take the child
as a whole, taking into account their individual talents, developing their creativity and helping them make good use of their free time. They work very closely with the
families and the children’s schools.
The Children
These children stem from extremely low-income families that are victims of unemployment, drug addiction, alcoholism, and domestic violence.
They live in very precarious conditions, many times without access to basic services. Their parent’s education level is very low; most of them only finished elementary school.
Many of the parents are unemployed or underemployed and other survive with government subsidies. The children suffer all kinds of deficiencies: inadequate nutrition that generates
health and learning problems, lack of access to sanitary prevention and control, they spend most of their time in the streets, they live in unstable homes, many times without a loving,
caring adult who can listen and protect them.
Location
Beccar, Buenos Aires.
Start Date
March, 2002.
Accomplishments
Manos del Sur improved their lives by funding programs in nutrition, education and after-school support programs. In addition,
they collaborated in the vast improvement of the infrastructure. For more information www.apoyoescolarsanfrancisco.com.ar
Casa del niño y del adolescente "Nuestra Señora de la Merced"
The Project
The Integrated Assistance Program was implemented in 2002 in “Nuestra Señora de la Merced” Day Care Center, located in barrio Obligado, province of Buenos Aires.
At that moment, the Center was in danger of being shut down due to the ongoing economic crisis, thus having to leave more than 100 children in the streets.
Today, the Day Care Center is functioning within its full capacity, the facilities have been improved and it receives more than 100 children a day, offering them
academic assistance, after-school programs, two daily meals, medical care and occupational workshops that prepare them to find jobs in the future.
The Children
These children belong to extremely low-income families suffering from very diverse problems such as unemployment, drug addiction, alcoholism and family violence.
They live in very precarious conditions, many times without access to basic services. Their parent’s education level is very low; most of them only finished elementary school.
Many of the parents are unemployed or underemployed and other survive with government subsidies. The children suffer all kinds of deficiencies:
inadequate nutrition that generates health and learning problems, lack of access to sanitary prevention and control, they spend most of their time in the streets,
they live in unstable homes, many times without a loving, caring adult who can listen and protect them.
Location
Bellavista, Argentina
Project Start Date
April 2002
Hogar Nuestra Señora del Pilar
The Project
Nuestra Señora del Pilar’s home was established at the end of 2003, based on a need to create a children’s Home in Capitan Sarmiento to receive the children who,
until that moment, were sent by the judges to faraway cities, usually separated from their siblings. Thanks to the donation of land, and with much effort, the group
of families managed to construct a permanent home for the children where they moved in December 2004
The Children
The children are orphans, have been abandoned or lived in such abusive environments that they were relocated by a judge. Usually, there are many siblings living
together at the home.
In the Home, they provide the children with a much needed home and a family environment where they can grow up into healthy adults. The children go to school
with regularity, receive psychological support and, above all, they feel loved and cared for. The children are learning to live in an orderly atmosphere,
within strict norms of behavior and with respect for each other.
Location
Capitan Sarmiento, Buenos Aires
Colegio Señor de Mailin
The Project
The school, located in Villa de Mayo, Buenos Aires, has 350 students from ages 5 to 14. The children receive not only official education but also
2 daily meals and trade workshops.
The Children
The children belong to very needy families, not only economically but also culturally, thus the importance of providing them the tools that empower
them not only on a personal basis but also as a community.
