Sponsor update from Cochabamba 2008
24/09/2008
Update from SOS Children's Village, Winter 2007
Dear sponsors,
It’s a great pleasure for us to write you once more and let you know about the SOS Children’s Villages Bolivia’s progress during this year. We thank you very much for your kind support, which allowed us to work with more than 13000 beneficiaries in this year, from which, more than 1400 live in a SOS Children’s Village.
Your solidarity and sensibility feeds our faith constantly and allow us to continue fighting to achieve the goal that every child in Bolivia who lost his/her parents or that were abandoned by them under different situations, have a new opportunity to grow up within a stable family nucleus, which is created by the nine SOS Children’s Villages in our country.
The population of Children’s Villages Cochabamba is 121 children and adolescents in 13 families, two of them live outside the Village. We welcome three children who lost their mother in an accident; they were in risk of abandonment by their father. We also expect to welcome a five year old girl who remained alone after her mother died. One significant event inside the Village was the familiar reinsertion of three children from mother Adelaida’s family, according to the SOS Children’s Villages’ guidelines. Then went back to live with their biological mother. This was a very important event within the family and the community because it was a re-encounter that was beneficial for the children. Now, we are doing a pursuit to the family so they fulfill the agreement they had at the Childhood and Adolescence’s Tribunal.
This year, children and adolescents attend different Scout Groups and it was positive for their emotional maturity, values strengthening, children’s rights, etc, resides it helps a greater relationship with the external community.
The Vocational Orientation addressed to 16 youths, for them to choose a technical career to study next year, is being supported in external environments outside the Village and follows participation guidelines in programs that are offered by different organisations.
Growing up
Regarding school, children and adolescents are about to finish this school year and the results are satisfactory as 10% of them are outstanding students and are the cornets during the civic parades. In the case of Leticia, the banner was three times bigger that she but, although the weight and the size of the banner, she carried it with pride during the parade.
Among the sport activities, the Village has a soccer team that plays in the Soccer Departmental Association of Cochabamba. That team, after hiring a new teacher who is called “Pipo” with love and who grew up in the SOS Children’s Villages of Santa Cruz City, the team improved its performance and they got the 4th and 5th place in the championship for Sub-9 and Sub-13 categories. Regarding basketball, the Pre-Mini category, which includes children up to 10 years old, got the 2nd place and the Cadetes category (children from 14 to 16 years old) was practically eliminated due to the nonattendance of some players to the matches.
On the other hand, the mothers got a greater integration and participation in the external community. Two mothers, Rosalina and Mercedes, are founder members of the Base Territorial Organisation (BTO), which is an organization recognised by the Municipality to use the resources in favor of their territory’s development. This implies that the mothers look after the progress of the external community and it’s an important step toward their leadership’s consolidation outside the Village.
This year, the mothers had a very special guest in the annual spiritual retirement; they were visited by the Archbishop of Cochabamba, Tito Solari, who meditated about the “Maternal Love” that the mothers of the Villages give to their children so they, in turn, learn to give LOVE and not just receive it. This experience allowed the families to be stronger through communication, confidence and, above all, filial love.
Towards independence
Regarding youths, 22 of them are in the professionalization stage and they live in different housing options: with their biological family, older house siblings, relatives of their SOS Mothers and in two Youth Facilities. In those Youth Facilities, 70% of the youths are from other villages of Bolivia and 30% are from Cochabamba.Twenty six youths are in the Advising stage, they already finished their technical careers and they are getting ready to live independently. Most of these youths are thinking of taking specialisation courses in their technical areas and some are thinking of studying at the university.
Next to the Village, is the Lactobar, the Nourishment Technical Formation Centre. Since 1998, it offers professional technical formation specifically in the Nourishment area; its services are for youths from SOS Children’s Villages of the seven departments of Bolivia and other youths from families who live in city periphery neighborhoods and who have low economical incomes. This program has seven Productive-Educative Areas: Bakery, Pastry, National and International Cooking, Costumers Service and Restaurants Management, Fruits, vegetables and cereal transformations, Milky derivates and Meat derivates.
In each module, the learning system is based on the Labor Competitions focus, 80% is practice and 20% is theoretical support. In each learning area, students have the constant guide and supervision of a teacher who is also responsible for the productive process. Likewise, students attend to complementary technical formation and personal formation workshops that last 3 years, after which, they get a Nourishment Medium Technician degree. The students who graduate are able to work in any of the seven areas they were formed in or to open their own business in this area. The participation in Innovation and Creativity fairs is a characteristic of this centre, as well as the promotion of special workshops regarding Enterprising in the community, which motivated business ideas that are working out.Nowadays, we have 33 students, 36% of them are youths from families of the Bolivian Villages and the rest of the students are external students.
This year, CENFOTEC Nourishment continued the implementation of the Labor Competence Model, which is based in an integral teaching that achieves the complementation between the “to know to do” (practice), the “to know to know” (theory) and the “to know to be” (attitude). These elements and dimensions are addressed to form suitable conducts, which are guided to solve problems in daily situations of learning and production. This Program is part of an Educative Project at a national level, which is conformed by all the Technical Formation Centers and Schools of SOS Children’s Villages Bolivia that will offer an innovative educative offer under the Enterprising pedagogic focus. Through the flexibilization of the educative curricula it’s possible to have a greater covering of attention for the goal population, which may have many needs and excelling wishes.
Dear sponsors, we thank for your confidence and valuable friendship during all these years.
Fernando Rojas A.
Director - SOS Children’s Village - Cochabamba
Relevant Countries: Bolivia.