By Sofia Masoni | Operational Director
We would like to take this time to thank everyone who contributed with Las Tunas ONG COVID-19 Response. As a result of your donations we have been able to assist and prepare the families in the community of Las Tunas for what is happening today due to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as help them prepare themselves for the new reality they will face once the quarantine is lifted.
To give you some context, Argentina has the not only the widest street and river in the world, but now the longest quarantine in the world with more than 200 days. The measures that the government has taken affects everybody, but it affects low income families the worst. Unemployment has risen to 13% and more than 2.6 million home have had their incomes reduced and 8 out of 10 children are depressed. In a quarantine were connectivity is key, more than 48.7% of the children in the country don’t have access to a computer and 47,1% don’t have Wi-Fi.
In order to help, we have put several programs in place, apart from our usual programs. Our Monitoring, Accompaniment and Early Detection Program which provides a personalized accompaniment to the 213 children and young adults in our programs with virtual encounters, phone calls and the accompaniment of 3 psychologists for the more complex cases. To this day, we have had 8 children that require the help of the psychologist as they have developed panic attacks, depression, anxiety and social phobias.
For the parents we have created a space were once a week they can gather and talk about their difficulties with parents in similar situations and we have provided 4 workshops with doctors and psychologists to help them understand what they and their children are going through and how to help them.
We have created an Economic Development program were we seek to strengthen the competencies of young adults and their families, in order to help them transform this uncertainty into an opportunity. We created a course for 15 entrepreneurs, about the economy and finances, 4 of with have mentors that help them with their ventures. We also developed a program called economy in your language, where economic concepts are taught in a way we can all understand them.
Another new program was Food Security and Health education, were we provide information in order to help the families be active protagonist in the care of their health not only physical but emotional.
Our original programs are still in full force, our tutoring and scholarship program for secondary and superior studies, with 70 still active and only 5 have been left the program. With over 900 hours of virtual tutoring already given.
Our visual arts program has proven to be a great, it’s a tool that helps as look into the lives of our with 29 active participants, with 23 virtual classes given and a Virtual art show on the way.
Lastly our Youth Orchestra program, which is a space for educational and social transformation. Through musical study it stimulates the development of confidence in one’s own abilities, the value of effort, discipline and prepares children and young adults in values and citizenship. Out of the 76 musician that started the year 59 are currently active, the drop was mostly due to lack of resources and screen exhaustion . We have given 1742 hours of instrument classes, 27 rehearsals and 2 virtual concerts. Please see the links below to see first had what the children have been able to create during these difficult times in quarantine.
All of this was possible with contributions such as yours.
There is still a lot of work to be done!
Links:
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