CONEXION - Creating a Sense of Community

Dear friend,

Fundacion Calicanto has recently decided to merge the CONEXION project into the two parent projects CAPTA and ENLACES. Conexion was originally formed after realizing the need to provide follow up educational activities to our beneficiaries and their extended families.  We have taken this to heart and thus decided to merge this initiative and officially make it part of the existing projects.

We believe that this will help our donors and followers recognize that follow up services are priorities that need to be included within the main projects.

I would personally like to thank you because from the very beginning you saw the importance of providing follow up services to our beneficiaries, you helped us get this initiative off the ground and made it possible for us to see that including these services within the main projects was necessary.  Now, I encourage you to continue to follow us through CAPTA and ENLACES.

CAPTA changes women's lives by providing basic life skills; higher self-esteem and technical job training that helps them find employment and lift out of poverty.

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/capta/

ENLACES works with children in social risk, using contemporary dance as a tool for change; along with theater and art workshops, academic tutoring, and psychological support.

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/enlaces/

Please continue to support our work through these two projects and thank you again for supporting our initiatives.

If you have any questions please contact me at:

drodriguez@fundacioncalicanto.org

Regards,

Hello dear friends,

As you well know, CONEXION is a project that Fundacion Calicanto created in order to follow up with our beneficiaries and provide additional training and tools for all members of the Calicanto community.

As I mentioned in the last report, we would be starting our first CONEXION program with the very first “Parent’s Club” in this community. The parent’s club will provide workshops for parents focusing on parental responsibility, self-esteem, a values-based education, and discipline, among other topics needed by this community. The training workshops for parents will be held monthly and our goal is to improve parent-child relationships and make parents aware of their children’s needs.

On May 8, we will also begin our usual English and Computer clubs, which target the CAPTA women who have graduated from our courses. They will receive as usual, basic English courses focused on hospitality terminology and basic computer use courses. 

I would also like to mention that Mother's day is around the corner, and you can help us raise more funds for this project or other Fundacion Calicanto projects (CAPTA, ENLACES or RESTAURA) by purchasing a tribute card for your mother and celebrating this joyous day with Fundacion Calicanto. 

Do something different this year, and show your mother just how much you love her with a tribute card. 

www.globalgiving.org/projects/conexion

2012 marked 15 years of successful community work with Fundacion Calicanto. Our end of year celebration for these 15 years was shared with volunteers, beneficiaries and personnel who all shared with us one night of food, prizes and music!

The end of year celebration counted with over 70 guests including the first CAPTA participants who are now sharing stories about their jobs and the houses they are buying. ENLACES parents shared stories about their children growth in the program. And the ENLACES children sneaked in to celebrate too! 

Fundacion Calicanto’s president Hildegard Vasquez thanked everyone present and gave away appreciation tokens to our volunteers and partners. 

We have big goals for 2013! We want to make the CONEXION project grow and reach more individuals.

For example we will now offer a school for parents so that ENLACES parents also get the training and support they need to escape poverty. We will offer them parent training, conflict management, communication skills, English and basic computer courses. 

We are looking forward to this project and will be in touch with all the fun updates and accomplishments!

We thank you for your support and ask that you keep contributing so that you can help us make all this possible. 

Happy New Year!!

Zunilda Conde is a 41 year old CAPTA graduate; CAPTA is training for employment through a 7 week intensive course for women offered by Fundacion Calicanto. Zunilda did not receive formal education and has spent most of her life working as a house maid.  After CAPTA, she joined a group of women who have organized to take basic computer classes in Calicanto and expressed to us that her experience has enriched her life. "I always thought I was too dumb to use a computer but you have taught me how to use one and now I even have a Facebook page!"

When Zunilda, who was born in an indigenous community in Panama, arrived in Calicanto, she was shy and introverted. She had very little confidence and a low self-esteem but today she is a stronger woman and has joined this group to learn basic computer skills that will help her look for jobs and better opportunities.

This is CONEXION. It's a space for women to get together and learn from our volunteers and from each other. Keep supporting this program so that we can continue giving women like Zunilda, the right tools to escape poverty.

Fundacion Calicanto celebrates the women who graduated from the second computer club this year!  

After 12 weeks of hard work, the girls learned everything from basic computer use to internet search options.  We celebrated this accomplishment on June 18^th with small snacks and a graduation ceremony where we presented them with Certificates of Accomplishments.

Before the celebration, the girls had to show their classmates what they had learned, the test: opening their own e-mail and Facebook accounts. They were successful!

The girls were very emotional; some even mentioned that they had never received a certificate before.

Congratulations girls, on to the next challenge!