By Raquel Henriquez | Communication and Development Supervisor
As the year is coming to an end, you can find amazing stories and events in this newsletter.
The education dropout rate for youth in these communities is 34%. Among the group of young people participating in Boy With a Ball's programs, the dropout rate is only 5.7%.
Aside from education rates, we measure resilience in the communities where we work using the following definition:
"[Resilience] is the belief held by an individual or team which allows them to overcome obstacles successfully without focusing on the possibility of failure, even when the odds are against them; as a result, those people with resiliency become quintessential examples of how to act positively in highly uncertain situations (E. Machacon, 2011; Lived Aspects, November-December 2010)."
On average, resilience is 65% in Los Cuadros de Guadalupe and El Triángulo de la Solidaridad.
This is what Boy With A Ball (BWAB) works for every week, every day, and every hour in order to bring hope to people facing difficult situations in at-risk communities. By believing in them and offering support not only changes their lives, but also builds a community that is home to healthier and more prosperous individuals.
December is a time of great joy and a time to share with loved ones. For many children in poverty, it is very difficult to find a gift in the Christmas tree. So this year we distributed 270 gifts for children and young people in the low-income housing projects of Guadalupe and Triangle of Solidarity.
In addition, we threw a holiday party for 200 children during which they enjoyed games and recreational activities. Each received a gift, food, and bags of candy. Our team at BWAB was quite moved to know that, for many, the party was an unforgettable experience.
In November of this year, our project "Bakery in the Triangle " became a finalist in the competition "I Entrepreneur," in which only 35 of 87 projects reached the final stage.
"Bakery in the Triangle" is a microenterprise of Boy With a Ball that seeks to train small businesses run by people from at-risk communities to provide jobs for women of all ages and technical training in baking for any member of the community. All net profits from the operation of the bakery will be reinvested in programs for social impact. Our goal is to scale up the project in other at-risk communities in Costa Rica.
Congratulations to all those who competed in I Entrepreneur and special thanks to Raquel Henriquez who led this project for BWAB!
A non-profit organization needs all the support of all those individuals and entities that generously offer their time to volunteer, their support networks, and their donations, among other types of assistance. To show our sincere thanks for their support, we hold an event for all those that collaborate with us to support our cause. In November, we celebrated "Donor’s Day" by planning an outing with our volunteers and donors.
We invited all donors to celebrate this day, including those who donated in the past. Members of BWAB staff, residents from the communities, and volunteers attended, allowing donors to meet and share with beneficiaries of BWAB.
We thank all the people who attended and we hope to repeat this important activity next year. We invite you to be a recurrent donor through Global Giving in order to participate in this event!
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
