Stand With Us - Prevent Youth Suicide - Save Lives

Hello everyone!

We are proud to submit another report to tell you how we have been able to grow with your support! It is a pleasure for us to share the main achievements of Todo Mejora with you. Daily, we workto prevent teen suicide and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in Chile.

With your support and that of other important donors we were able to develop the only suicide prevention mobile application in the Latin America Region for young people who suffer from  discrimination for being themselves. Since January 2017 we have been able to support children and adolescents (nearly 900 attentions in 3 months!) who are afraid and alone, and suffer from violence because of their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Todo Mejora has also strengthened its partnership with  specialized mental health centers, legal support from partner institutions, delivered educational materials to educate health professionals nationwide to respond adequately to children and families.

We have promoted our application in different spaces. A few days ago we have received this anonymous message from our website: “I don’t want to go to bed without saying how thankful I feel after the advertisement I saw today at Tobalaba Metro Station. Last year I tried to committed suicide in that very exact place when someone who works there appeared and save me. That station, a death place for me, is from now on an invitation for life and to understand that everything gets better. I still have some suicide thoughts and I even hurt myself sometimes but (even if no one is reading this) I want to thank you with all my heart for considering us. We are survivors. Survivors of child abuse, of bullying, of that horrible soul pain…”.

During these first three months we have also been strongly advocating for the Gender Identity Law and other projects related to LGBTI children and adolescents. Todo Mejora is deeply engaged with guaranteeing trans kids’ rights!

Last but not least, we celebrated our "Todo Mejora 2017 Awards"! Where the foundation celebrates those who have been fighting for LGBTI Children’s rights, and an instance to celebrate our 5 years in Chile! The main winner this year was the President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, who was committed to "working tirelessly for Chile to be the home of EVERYONE, regardless of who they are, how they dress, who they love or with what gender they identify".

Finally, Todo Mejora spends hours of attention in its online platform.  At the end of 2016 we responded 7 hours a week, today we respond 25 hours a week, and in four months time, we will save lives 45 hours a week. In 2017, Todo Mejora will also train health professionals throughout Chile and finally we are going to keep researching in order to effectively create capacity building programs and materials!! And for this we need all the support you can give us. The demand by LGBTI children, adolescents and their families to find answer, support and to prevent the suicide continues to be a serious problem.. You are all part of this challenge and we deeply thank you for your constant support!