Centro Las Claras: New Opportunity for Teen Moms

First of all, THANK YOU for your donations and on-going support for The Las Claras Program. Your actions have been key in the success of the program.

 After 2 years filled with difficulties and teachings, we started this 2022 with great enthusiasm to do new things and return 100% to normal.

 The great news is that the Las Claras Center of Felipillo is expanding and growing in order to be able to support more teenage mothers, girls and women of the community. This construction is estimated to be completed in September of this year and we are very excited about this. MORE TO COME ABOUT THIS!

In the first months of the year, we implemented our Veranito Las Claras program, focused on the prevention of adolescent pregnancy for 35 girls from the community between the ages of 7-14.As for our girls who are currently in the center, they have already started the second phase of the program with the beginning of the bachelor's degree and administrative assistant program, have also continued to receive a variety of workshops and classes, on top of the fixed syllabus. Furthermore, monthly parent/caretaker reunions are still going in order to maintain family peace, and to motivate their support towards their daughters so they can finish their studies.

Las Claras started with the belief that a profound social transformation could only be achieved through the power of education. Now, we have successfully graduated 10 groups of teen mothers who have received a double degree in Bachelor of Commerce, with a specialization in Accounting from the Gastón Faraudo School, and a Technical Program degree from INADEH. We have graduated bilingual professionals that have been successfully inserted in the labor market, with a large percentage of them pursuing university studies and scholarships for international exchanges. 100% of our graduates have improved their social skills, communication, self-confidence and personal habits. All of our students believe that the only way to transform their lives, reduce teenage pregnancy and get out of poverty is through education.

 Once more, we THANK YOU for your continuous support in this quest for a better quality of life for teen mothers and their children. PLEASE keep donating and invite others to join us in this quest with their donation!

More action still to come. Stay tuned :)

First of all, THANK YOU for your donations and on-going support for The Las Claras Program. All of our work during another challenging pandemic year was made possible to your donations. We thank you for allowing us to collaborate together, making our country a better Panama.

And we are proud to say that in December we were able to graduated two generations of teenage mothers in the Las Claras Program: our eight group of students in Felipillo and the second class in the community of Santa Ana.

Even though all the difficulties that we encounter in 2020-2021, these teenage mother were able to overcome them all, and were able to graduate from our Program and start they working life, with better conditions for them, their children and their families. 

We ended the year with smiles and hugs, preparing for a 2022 full of challenges and goals to accomplish.

As you can see, we´ve come a long way during these past months. The teen mothers at the Las Claras Program have received care, education, and continuous support which allows them to find empowerment previously unknown to them. Furthermore, our own statistics keep showing us the powerful effect of our program within their lives even after graduation.

Still, the reality in our country is one that requires further action: only during 2019, there were 9,028 registered cases of teen and child pregnancy, meaning that around 27% of total pregnancies in our country belong to a child or teen mom. A number that doesn’t include cases from Social Security Fund, and private clinics. Furthermore, this number keeps on increasing every year, and will and were severely affected by the effects of the pandemic as well. Showing us that our work and program is a real necessity in the future of our country. 

Once more, we THANK YOU for your continuous support in this quest for a better quality of life for teen mothers and their children. PLEASE keep donating and invite others to join us in this quest with their donation!

More action still to come. Stay tuned :)