Help break the cycle of violence and poverty

In Medellín, Saturdays are not school days, and sometimes the alternative isn't staying at home to rest, but rather going out to the streets to accompany parents in their quest for a livelihood. At Casa Tres Patios, we've understood this context, which is why our goal for 2024 is to continue providing a space where children in vulnerable situations can continue learning outside of the traditional institution. This way, those living in tenements can explore other parts of the city and gain access to new languages of information and decision-making that affect them as citizens. In other words, this year we want to further enhance the possibility for this population to have more opportunities for their present and future.

Based on the results of the R3Cre0 program in 2023, the Casa Tres Patios Foundation considers it important to pivot this proposal to have a more significant impact. In this regard, we've identified the need for two major changes; therefore, we've spent the last months focusing on consolidating the new direction. Firstly, we've found methodological approaches that can motivate and encourage questioning, curiosity, critical thinking, and creativity. To achieve this, we've established connections between communication and education, aiming to provide children and adolescents with tools to observe their surroundings, propose fair and democratic alternatives, and take actions with impact on their community through storytelling—learning to find, structure, and materialize those stories in various media formats.

Secondly, we've recognized the importance of collaboration with other organizations to strengthen our work. Thus, we've decided to partner with the Sueños y Huellas Foundation, which also operates in downtown Medellín. This alliance allows us to expand and strengthen our initiatives and find a group that provides constant support to give strength and continuity to the proposal. Currently, we are in the planning stage of joint activities for the current year.

Our goal is to provide a safe and stimulating space where participants can explore and build knowledge creatively through experimentation and playful pedagogy. We aim to facilitate contact with various media such as photography, comics, and podcasts, allowing them to express themselves authentically and creatively, as well as to analyze and produce media content responsibly. We hope for continued support in this new stage where knowledge and experience have strengthened us to offer a more solid program that meets the needs of our beneficiaries.

Zamira is a Venezuelan migrant, seven years old and is part of the group that started after mid-year in the R3Cre0 Program, implemented by the Casa Tres Patios Foundation, thanks to the support of donors, of those who have believed in this project to promote changes in the vulnerable population in Medellin, Colombia. Her life story made her a shy girl, worried about her own protection, about taking care of her own, and that is how she came to the workshops. However, the weekly meetings had an impact on her. Today, at the end of the year, the workshop leaders tell, with tears in their eyes, how she gradually began to smile more, to relate to her classmates and, especially, to trust. 

And although this speaks of a strengthening of her social-emotional skills, the most exciting thing is the motivation for learning that has emerged in her. Zamira is not enrolled in an educational institution, there is no other place where she receives learning, there is only her mother who daily goes to downtown Medellin to sell coffee and sweets, informally. That is why R3Cre0 has become her school; that is the place where curiosity has arisen from seeing the example of its workshop leaders. After a few Saturdays, she expressed her desire to write and began to observe and imitate what others were doing. Her motivation was so strong that, at the last meeting, she was able to write down on her own, on small pieces of paper, the dreams for her life, and the most important thing she expressed was that her mother could be proud of her. 

This story has shown us that sometimes the impact figures, when measured in numbers, fall short, because the change in the life story for this second half of the year of the 54 children who are part of this initiative of the Casa Tres Patios Foundation, is a transformation in which today we see how the seeds begin to emerge from the asphalt, but whose fruits will be harvested over time. And it is this that encourages us to persist, to trust, and to think of activities where curiosity, creativity, critical thinking and, last but not least, socio-emotional skills, can be strengthened.  

Some of those activities that during this semester we developed through our methodology known as Unlearning Labs, include outings to explore places in the city: cultural spaces, aquariums, theme parks and streets of Medellin, which awakened their astonishment and motivated them to ask new questions, showing how little by little the purposes of R3Cre0 were being fulfilled. This semester we managed to explore, in three cycles, the self, the others, and the environment; and to find creative answers so that each child could think about their life projects. It is worth mentioning that in all this, art was transversal. Participants created masks, made performances and explored positive life references that allowed them to name a dream but not only that, but to internalize the concrete steps needed to achieve it. In total there were 33 meetings with the two groups that were consolidated this year and left expectations to continue and address urgent issues in this population such as care, sexuality and consumption of psychoactive substances. 

Today we have also learned something because the evaluation of our processes is fundamental; therefore, we know that to make more emphasis on the question, insist that these come from them and take advantage of their interest in artistic activities and crafts, are clear purposes of the Foundation for next year; meaningful games are also key to motivate them and generate an appropriate climate for learning; however, maintaining the rigor of seeking how to achieve the purposes of the program to stimulate curiosity, creativity and critical thinking is fundamental. 

Thus, in this time of gratitude, we are deeply moved with those who believed in this project and we thank them for believing, trusting and fostering so many changes in the children of Medellín who live in vulnerable conditions.  Now we also want to light candles so that the dream of continuing with R3Cre0 becomes a reality next year. We hope you can donate or spread the word about what is happening in this program so that it continues to be possible.