Give at-risk Colombian children a safe home

Hello dear GG Donors

Welcome to August! Time runs very quickly; It’s amazing seeing how we’re already halfway through with 2018!

This recent Bonus Day was quite amazing. Thank you all for your early and great contributions which were matched, to help our children build their self-esteem and confidence through our Happy Hearts project. It’s a pleasure to show you how things are going with your generous donations. We have been able to speed up the progress for the remodeling of our recreational space. Since then reached significant progress in the paint jobs, furniture acquiring and creative designs on the walls that provide additional tools to challenge children’s creative mind.

A few weeks ago, Andres one of our children in Nuevo Amanecer, experienced an emotional crisis. At the age of fourteen, he has lost the feeling of being loved as he grew up in a violent household, where his father throughout his entire life physically and verbally abused him. Witnessing this abuse, he felt like violence was simply the only form of expressing such feeling, causing him to struggle with managing his emotions and even worse lacking motivation in everyday activities. During his crisis, he resorted to violence in which he attempted to physically hurt other children. Once the situation was controlled, the psychologist mentioned how he has a wall built upon pain and emotional trauma from abuse, where he does not allow anyone into his heart. Getting through this wall, is the ongoing challenge the team is currently facing, but there is a light at the end of this tunnel. Such light consists of his recently given opportunity to start school, which gives him a sense of distraction and self-confidence.

We deeply believe that this new space we are building with your active participation, will grant Andres, and all the children coming from family hardships, a positive, inspiring and motivating ambient to channel their emotional difficulties into a creative manner. Similarly this space will encourage them to complete their daily homework tasks and thus further develop any talents they have discovered during their time at our Foundation’s program. With the help of volunteer participation and guide of our professional team we have been able to provide our children with creative techniques that do not employ the use of violence and as a result build their sense of confidence through personal achievements.

 We'd love to get some feedback on our project, so feel free to let us know how we have done. Again thank you so much for your commitment with our at-risk children in Colombia.

Kind Regards,

Patricia Gonzalez

Warm greetings and thank you very much for your generous support to our project aiming to reinstate and defend the fundamental rights of children and youth who live in the streets and whose rights are vulnerable.This year, on the 12^th of March, it took place our General Assembly where the 2017 Annual Report was released. “Papá Jaime”, president and founder, led the meeting attended by the foundation´s partners and founders, members of the Board of Directors; representatives of the Crowe Horwath (our External Auditors) and the Fiscal Auditor firm.

General Manager, Diana Zamudio, presented the Financial Statements highlighting the most important events of the year in which we took care of 2.573 children and their families at our four boarding centers. She shared the challenges the foundation has ahead in regards to create new funding sources to become more effective, and she talked about the necessity to find new strategies to generate greater impact on the community served by identifying -in a specific way- the right solutions to the problems, that unfortunately, still affect hundreds of boys and girls in Colombia and this is only possible with your support.

We need to expand the team of globalgivers in our continuous task, that this year is focused in education. In Colombia, boys and girls drop out of school, mostly because they did not have an adequate pre-school education. Thus, in this reporting period we will focus our attention to reinforce the non-conventional learning strategies through the improvement of the recreational and ludic spaces in our homes. Our experience has shown us that the child world turns around the joy of learning through games. Nevertheless, our children hadn´t had the chance to play a lot in their vulnerable homes. Many of them had to work in the streets helping their parents to get the daily income to feed their families. We need to give them back the opportunity to enjoy their childhood.

That’s why we created the ´Happy Hearts Project´ from which we intend to improve the learning methodologies through art and recreation. The purpose is to transform the behavior and attitudes of our children through the adaptation of the pedagogical areas in each center. We believe that through games, theater, reading activities music, sports, body culture, mindfulness and arts, boys and girls get a better experience of the world and learn to share assertively their emotions. It has been proven that games have two main functions: the emotional enrichment and the acquirement of cognitive abilities. At the end, we want to construct a warm space where learning becomes meaningful and in which enjoyment is the fundamental tool that stimulates their comprehensive development and well-rounded education.

On the other hand, our ´Happy Hearts Project´ has expanded worldwide. On the 21^st of April, Valery Thompson, one of our dearest Globalgiving donors, organized an event to raise money with the parents of British School of Belgium, to support this initiative. Valerie lead the fundraising as a representative of our Foundation to support the learning development of our children. “I believe that this educational project can help children to deal with the suffering their have experienced in the streets”, says Thompson.

Finally, as education is the main core of the growth of a human, we aspire that with our “Happy Hearts Project” 200 children and youths protected per year at “Niños de los Andes” succeed their scholar term with your support.

Once again, thank you for helping us to transform lives!

Links:

• 2017 Annual Report in Spanish.