Our after-school program in Kyustendil, Bulgaria supports at-risk youth, including from the Roma community. We provide a safe space, academic tutoring, and life-skills training to reduce school abandonment, early pregnancy for girls, and premature child labor for boys. By keeping children and teens engaged in education, we empower them to break generational cycles of poverty and build secure futures. Money will go toward the programs, incentives, the facility, and staff.
In Kyustendil, marginalized youth, face severe poverty, and social exclusion. These conditions drive alarming rates of school drop-out as young as 9 yrs old. Without support, girls are at high risk of child marriage & early pregnancy, ending their access to education. And boys frequently drop out for premature, exploitative labor. These compounded threats create a vicious, multi-generational cycle of poverty & leave children highly vulnerable to abuse, family abandonment & institutionalization.
Our After-School Program provides a safe daily haven to prevent root causes of dropout. We provide support with homework & tutoring in English to keep students academically engaged & ahead. We also run vital life-skills workshops tailored to their risks: reproductive health & empowerment for girls to prevent exploitation, child marriage, pregnancy; & career exploration to deter child labor. Teachers & mentors provide daily guidance, building the resilience these children need to stay in school.
By keeping vulnerable youth engaged in education, this project actively disrupts the cycle of systemic poverty & child exploitation. Educated, empowered teens grow into adults capable of securing stable employment, making informed life choices, and uplifting their families. Ultimately, this program emboldens a resilient, independent generation of at-risk youth equipped with the tools, education, and confidence to build secure futures, avoid exploitation, and positively transform their community.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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