Transforming The Lives of Children in Cartagena

We are delighted to present to you the latest update on our work towards transforming the lives of the children in our community. Thanks to your support, we have accomplished significant milestones in the last quarter. Our commitment to providing nutritious meals, educational support, artistic and recreational workshops has positively impacted the children's well-being and educational success. Here are some of the highlights:

Here are some of the highlights of our work:

Breakfast club: During the past few months, our breakfast club has been providing an essential source of nutrition and support to the children in our community. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our team, we were able to serve a total of 3,900 healthy breakfasts to our beneficiaries, ensuring that they start their day off with the energy and nourishment they need to succeed. 

Recreation and Arts: We strongly believe in the power of creativity and self-expression for the children's growth and development. That's why we're thrilled to share that through our RecreArt program (Recreation with Arts), we have conducted 12 art and handicraft workshops with the children. These workshops have not only stimulated their imaginations but have also strengthened their creativity, allowing them to explore their unique talents and abilities. We can see the positive impact of these workshops on the children's well-being, and we will continue to provide them with opportunities to explore their artistic potential.

School Reinforcements: We conducted multiple school reinforcement workshops as part of our strategy to support the children's education and to help them overcome the topics in which they face the most challenges. 

Training for Caregivers: We conducted workshops for the wonderful caregivers who are part of our foundation's family. Together, we explored new ways to strengthen their responsibility in providing the best education and care possible for the children. It was a beautiful opportunity to build a sense of community, share knowledge, and encourage each parent to be the best versions of themselves. 

Expanding Our Reach: We are thrilled to announce that we have expanded our reach and opened new spots for admission, allowing us to extend our support to a total of 85 children. We are excited to welcome these new beneficiaries into our community and are committed to providing them with the resources they need to thrive and succeed.

We're grateful to all donors who've contributed to our progress. Your support has allowed us to serve more children in the community, offering them healthy meals, education, recreation, and artistic opportunities. With your help, we've created a safe and nurturing environment for these children to learn and grow.

However, many children still need our help, and we believe that every child deserves the chance to reach their full potential. Please continue partnering with us in our efforts to create a brighter future for these children by donating to our cause. Your contributions, big or small, can make a significant difference in their lives.

In the last quarter, we continued the work of transforming the lives of the kids we serve by consistently implementating a rich set of activities that aim to holistically address their main needs (food security, education and safety).

Below is a summary of the activities we did over the past three months: 

• 11.700 breakfast meals served.

• 100 school supply kids distributed.

• 15 workshops to stimulate kids’ interest in reading and writing their own stories.

• 15 workshops to stimulate kids’ creativity and imagination using plastic arts.

• 6 workshops aiming at strengthening kids’ self-esteem and build their confidence.

• English classes about basic vocabulary, greetings and introductory conversations. The kids’ excitement on those classes was remarkable!

• 10 school reinforcement workshops for kids to improve their reading, writing and math skills, as some are behind the level expected for their age.

• Visited families to identify additional unmet needs and find ways to address those who have the biggest impact on the kids.

It is the support of people like you that have being instrumental in enabling us to provide a consistent program to our kids, which is already having a long lasting impact in their lives, we are immensely grateful for your support, thank you.

Over the last two quarters, we served an average of 65 daily breakfasts to our children, totaling around 6500 meals year to date. We also had the opportunity to partner with a local organization to arrange for the donation of 70 school supply kits to further support our kids’ educational needs. On the Arts, we are thrilled to see the children's creativity taking off as we have conducted more than 20 artistic workshops including one about painting with the feet! Likewise, in the school reinforcement area, we conducted several workshops aimed at stimulating the children's creative writing while getting them exposed to creative reading.  Last but not least, we continued our visits to the children's homes to get a firsthand view of their other unsatisfied needs so we can help find ways to address them. This outreach also gives us the opportunity to talk with their mothers and continue encouraging them to continue their commitment to their kid’s well-being and education and to follow through with the programs that we have designed for their benefit.

On a separate note, we had the opportunity to give a refreshing touch to our facilities through painting and remodeling, as you can see in the pictures below, it is, without doubt, an environment that inspires creativity and fun.

As we often say, seeing the transformation of the lives of these kids is the fuel that strengthens our commitment to this project, we dream to see them one-day becoming doctors, nurses, lawyers, or engineers, and we want to help them all along their journey. It is also in great part due to your continuous support that we can keep serving them and we are so much grateful for that. 

As 2021 drew to a close, we were able to finish the year by hosting multiple activities to continue supporting the kids that love and serve. We also received many warm demonstrations of gratitude both from the moms and kids, the perfect ingredients that add fuel to our commitment and determination to continue serving them for the years to come.

Breakfast club: In the last quarter of the year, we served 2600 breakfast meals accounting for a total of around 10.000 meals in the whole of 2021. Additionally, caregivers are actively encouraged to get involved in helping their kids eat and thus we seek to strengthen the parent-child affective bond.

School reinforcements: We conducted 10 school reinforcements sessions, to continue to strengthen the kids’ reading and writing skills as well as math. These are specially tailored to the kids that have fallen behind in their school learning, as we found that some of the kids have significant deficiencies in those core areas. In addition, we actively seek to raise awareness among their parents so they can also supplement their learning at home.

 The mom of one of our kids said:

“Thanks to Betania Juvenil, I learned how to read and write, add and subtract, and I have a lot of fun playing”

Early education: We conducted 4 workshops for kids 0 to 5 years old, aimed to give them an early introduction to reading, geometric figures, and the strengthening of the Mom – Child affective bond.

Christmas activities: We finished the year with 4 recreational activities aimed at making the children happy and at the same time, keeping them out of the street where they are exposed to gangs and violence. We even hosted a kids' cookie cooking activity!

Additionally, as part of the Christmas season, we hosted two gift-giving sessions one for kids to receive toys and another one for Moms to receive groceries. These activities have the goal of increasing the overall satisfaction of the Moms with the programs we offer and keeping them engaged long term. The kids were very playful and happy with the gift they received.

The Moms Craft Workshop: We conducted 2 additional Craft workshops under the topic of Christmas, where the Moms had the chance to come together for a time of fun, relaxation, and learning.

Family workshops and outreach: Through residential visits and phone calls, we reached out to the families involved in the program, to motivate them to continue their participation and to encourage them to keep up their commitment to their kids’ education at home. This outreach also allows us to identify critical unsatisfied needs in their homes and to reinforce the importance of raising their children in a nurturing and caring environment.

Another mom said:

“Thanks to Betania Juvenil for the activities, my kids enjoy them a lot, and can avoid the gangs in the streets.”

“I want to also thank you because as a result, they are learning more and more, and the truth is [chuckles], they have a lot of fun”

In addition to the outreach, we hosted two workshops where the moms had the opportunity to receive individualized support from a professional phycologist which help them in better navigating difficult situations that may impact the well-being of their family and the optimum development of their children.

A third mom said:

“Thanks for the psychology sessions, we learned a lot! Thank God and Betania Juvenil for your present and future support!”

We also want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your support over the last 3 years, and we hope to continue to enjoy your enduring partnership in the years to come. Thanks!

Over the past 18 months, we had to adapt to an ever-evolving set of challenges introduced by the pandemic. However, this past quarter felt like going back to normalcy, as we had more opportunities to conduct our day-to-day activities without disruption whilst keeping up with the biosecurity measures to protect the health of our kids. Below is a summary of the main highlights for this period:

Breakfast club: During the last quarter we delivered over 4400 breakfast meals, accounting for 7.400 year to date and well over 15.000 since we started the project 32 months ago. This is a very important milestone and we wanted to take this chance to thank you once again for partnering with us.

School reinforcements: We conducted 18 sessions to reinforce kids learning in areas where we see deficiencies from their school progress, these topics included: teaching the basic reading skills of recognizing the alphabet letters and math operations such as addition, subtraction, and multiplication according to the kid's age groups. Most of these activities are delivered with the help of games so that kids can learn by playing which gives them extra motivation to engage in the learning process. We also provided 10 English sessions where kids can learn conversational skills by practicing everyday life words such as colors, animals, greetings, and others. For kids aged 5 and below, we conducted 6 workshops for early stimulation where they could learn to recognize geometric shapes. Additionally, this age group also benefits from a strengthening of the relationship with their mothers in the degree to which they take part in these activities.

Women empowering: We conducted 4 workshops for the mothers of the kids to continue developing skills in decoration and other manual activities with the objective of allowing them to create their own products and start small businesses.

As we mentioned in our previous report, we have the goal of building new facilities to keep up with the growing number of kids that are benefitting from our service, over the last 2+ years we went from 30 to almost 100 kids and our ambition is to serve 200. We shall report to you as we progress on this important milestone, so stay tuned!