Breaking poverty cycle for 70 youths in Bogota

During the first trimester of the year, Pintando Caminos has been working hard on the Homework Help project. We decided to improve the project because, when we tested the students at the beginning of the year, we realized that many students are not reading and writing at the level that coincides with their grade level. Since this affects all aspects of youths’ academic performance, we have started a project with the mission that every child will write, read, and comprehend in 2012. We are developing specific activities around writing and learning skills, and with many we are working on reinforcing basic math skills.

So far in this project we have two groups – one in the morning with 45 kids from various grades, and the other in afternoon with about 80 kids regularly attending. During the first have of the workshop we do activities and exercises designed to focus on literacy and math, and for the second half we work with the students on their own assignments.

With this strategy what we are trying to do is provide them with one of the most basic skill sets for breaking their cycle of poverty. With basic education skills, if students can write, read, and comprehend, they can access professional education and come closer to accomplishing their goals. Once again, we’d like to remind you that this is only possible with the support of heartfelt sponsors such as yourself.  

We are also continuing with the nutrition program, in which approximately 150 kids are participating, and starting in April we are going to begin supplementing the lunches with animal protein. Thanks to specific donation, we will be able to prepare meals with beef and chicken, foods with the families of our kids normally can’t afford (food that even Pintando Caminos has been unable to afford – until now).

On February 25^th some students from the University of Michigan came and ran an activity with the kids. Some of them got to go play soccer, and others worked on arts and crafts in the foundation building.

The soccer program is temporarily suspended while we search for more funding. We are using this time to concentrate all our efforts on the reading and writing project, and getting the kids formed academically.

Thank you all for supporting us in this journey. If you have any questions feel free to contact Zach at zbinsfeld AT gmail.com, or Alex at pintandocaminos AT yahoo.com