By Camila Urbina | Communicator
2013 was a great year for Juntos Construyendo Futuro, our organization changed the life of more than 12.189 boys and girls across Colombia. Our wonderful workers and volunteers made sure 2013 was a year of learning, positivity and beauty.
Children across Colombia were given extracurricular academic, artistic and sports opportunities to keep them away from working during their spare time or stop going to school all together. Their parents and families were motivated to keep them in school and were taught about the importance of the education and the benefits of participating in sports, educational activities and the arts for the future of their children.
In 2013 we had beautiful carnaval activities, dancing, singing and poetry recitals. We had spooky halloween parties and cozy christmas celebrations; We saw the birth of a soccer star and most importantly, we saw dreams form and come true, where before there was just hopelessness. Thanks to your donations the lives of 12.189 children were transformed, now thay are far away from street vending, house cleaning, mining and other hard labor, their days are now filled with knowledge, smiles and care for their development.
We had amazing projects created by our leaders in different regions of Colombia, we want to share with you a two of the best and most innovative activities of 2013:
The kindhearted queens
At the Guillermo Valencia School auditorium in Monteria,Cordoba the first pageant of creativity and kindness Proniño 2013 took place.
Beauty pageants are very popular in Colombia, specially in our Caribbean regions, most little girls dream about being beauty queens. Trying to spin this love for the runway into something educational and positive for all, our leaders in Monteria, Cordoba came up with a pageant that woul reward not beauty but creativity, athleticism, kindness and leadership.
The event joinned three partner institutions that house our afterschool programs, with the participation of 13 candidates that represented the three alternate schedules for after-school activities and academic-boosters programs. 119 children and youths of all the programs participated in the event and cheered their candidates. The participanst took to the runway presenting sports wear, Eco-wear (a gown made of recycled materials), evening wear and participated in a talent contest were the girls danced, sang and recited poetry for the exicited audience.
This activity was designed to recognize above all kindness, resourcefulness and creativity of this group of girls throughout the year stood out for their leadership, spirituality and talent. The winner was crowend and receive a small price and the honor to be an example for her community.
The Exploring Botanists' great adventure
Our Programme on Child Labour Eradication in San Andrés Sotavento just brough to us one of the most exciting activities of the year.
50 boys and girls from the municipality took a field trip to remember. During the academic adventure named the Proniño Botanical Expedition, participants undertook a quest to identify the scientific and common names of plants that were of interest to them. The exploration started at the basketball court of the San Simon School from where they crossed the entire village through the local woods, crossing brookes and streams, encountering small animals and feeling like real explorers, the adventure ended in the office of our organization in the municipality.
At the end of this mini-botanic expedition, the different teams presented their work to their classmates, sharing with the community all the knowledge acquired, samples collected and all the experiences during their quest.
It was a wonderful opportunity to make science come alive for these children who have very few academic opportunities, improving their self-esteem by making them the protagonist of their very own adventure and allowing them to connect to the wonderful scientific world in their own backyards.
We want to thank you again for supporting us during 2013 and we look foward to share with you all the wonderful new projects we have for 2014 to help ensure a brilliant future for the children of Colombia.
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