In March 2007, the children’s home ‘La Vecina’ opened its doors in the neighbourhood Marlinda,
approximately 10 km from the old centre of Cartegena, Colombia. A lot of fishermen live in this poor area.
The children’s home is called ‘La Vecina’, which means ‘The Neighbour’ in Spanish. Nathalie Rietman,
the founder of the children’s home, is the Neighbour and is concerned about these children.
‘La Vecina’ offers these children shelter, education, food and care.
‘La Vecina’ offers shelter to deprived (homeless) children from two up to the age of eight.
These are children whose lives are marked by poverty, lack of education and criminality.
In the first instance, ‘La Vecina’ offers day shelter to a group of fifteen children.
Activities 2008
IN THE FOUNDATION
A. With the children
EVALUATION IN THE AREA OF HEALTH: An evaluation in the areas of dentistry, phono-audiology, and growth and development was held for 2 days in the month of February (13th and 14th) for a total of 80 children, including those in the La Vecina foundation program and the community.
PARENTS COUNCIL: The parents council was formed on the 18th of February, for a better organization for the foundation and the construction of the support network.
ESPECIALIZED ENGLISH CLASSES: For the first time we have a foreign volunteer, who has developed a program of English classes especially for children.
CHILDHOOD DAY: we celebrated on the 30th of April 'Childhood day' with the children from the foundation with gifts, food, dances and cake.
CHILDHOOD ORIENTATION WORKSHOPS: The first psychology intervention groups were held on the 17th of April and the 14th of May, with all children touching subjects like gender perception and expression of emotions.
CULTURAL PEDAGOGIC DAY OUT: For the closing of the first semester, all children enjoyed a nice day out at the Barranquilla Zoo where they could apply some of the concepts acquired in the classroom. This outing was held on the 20th of June.
B. With the parents
PARENTS SCHOOL: we have started this year with the parents school, a space required for parents education regarding raising and educating their children and as complementary program to the pedagogic and psychological assistance. The first two classes were held on the 29th of February and the 23rd of May with subjects related to children's growth, and authority and organization at home.
PARENT-TEACHER MEETINGS: Parents are kept informed about their children during the parent-teacher meeting. These were held on the 18th of February, 7th of May and 16th of June.
MOTHER'S DAY CELEBRATION: Due to their commitment and the responsible attitude of most of the mothers, we celebrated Mother's day. The children acknowledged their mothers' effort for their well-being with artistic presentations; and showed what they had rehearsed with their teacher and other trainers.
IN THE COMMUNITY
A. With the children
MOUTH HYGIENE DAY : 30 children benefited from fluoridation treatments, tooth brushes and cups for mouth hygiene. This was held on the 31st of March.
MOUTH HYGIENE DAY AT INETEB SCHOOL: we managed to give away tooth brushes, cups and tooth paste for fluoridation purposes for 175 children on second, third and fourth grade of the INETEB school at Marlinda and Villagoria. This took place on the 16th and 17th of April.
CHILDHOOD DAY CELEBRATION : We got resources for the celebration of the childhood day in several community houses for a total of 117 children who enjoyed cake, snacks and candy.
B. With adults
DELIVERY OF MEDICINE KITS: we delivered medicine kits containing 22 different medicines suitable for children, to every one of the 9 community mothers, each working with 12 children between the ages of 0 and 4 years old. Deliveries were made on the 26th and 27th of May.
ENGLISH CLASSES: for the first time we have a foreign volunteer, who has developed a program for basic English classes, offered in 1-hour lessons during week days.
SUPPORT DURING WOMEN HEALTH DAY: We helped with the organization of campaign to control cancer for 28 women, on the 28th of March.
SOCIAL PARTICIPATION: We attended on the 22nd of April to a demonstration against sex tourism, abuse and child sexual exploitation.
COMMUNITY PROJECT: from the meetings with the parents we got the proposal to create a community library to serve students from different classes. We managed to initially get 116 documents including books, magazines and encyclopedias.
C. With the youth
YOUTH FORMATION PROJECT: In this first semester we started a pilot project addressed to the prevention of social problems in the young population. It started with the first youth video-forum on the 12th of March, with very positive outcome.
SPORTS PROPOSAL: through a community leader who trains children in the community, we are studying the possibility to generate some kind of sport sponsorship for them.
MANAGEMENT:
AGREEMENT INETEB: an agreement with the education center of the area was established to facilitate the continuation of the children's academic process, which will allow them to enter this education center whenever there are finished with their transition year.
ECONOMIC DONATIONS: interested people have made donations which allowed us a bag to give every child at the beginning of the school year.
TEACHING MATERIAL DONATION: among the donations we have received 15 books, 2 encyclopedias, coloring books for kindergarten and pens for the workshops.
ACQUIRED DOCUMENTS:
HEALTH LICENSE
PEI (Institutional Education Project)
GOOD PRACTICES AND MANUFACTURE PROGRAM
ORGANIZED FOLDERS FOR ALL CHILDREN
