Consolidation, an institutional goal

Our goal for 2007 is institutional consolidation. Without leaving aside the context and team work, we aim at consolidating internally our activities, our teams, and the articulation among the different areas.

EnAcción is going through an expansion process in its activities and projects. This process has arisen the necessity of growing and working cohesively in the team to carry out the activities faster and better.

To achieve these goals, all the members in the organization have monthly meetings to bond and discuss the problems and the activities being carried out. In the same way, the General Coordination and the Programs’ coordinators have weekly meetings to work in the orientation and in the work philosophy in the short and in the long term.

In the Programs, the growth was seen in the incorporation of professionals that because of their strategic orientation or development needed more dedication. In this way, for example, the enlargement up to 100 people in the Social Promotion Workshops required a new Social Worker, and because of the great number of children with language problems, a specialist in language acquisition was also incorporated.

Moreover, some youngsters who had been participating in different projects for some time now, are gradually starting to be part of the working teams. Because of this, besides the organization among all the teams, each one of the three Programs is reinforcing its internal meetings.

All the process is being accompanied by the areas of Communication, Administration, and Economy. Since May, the billboards were reinforced and a printed newsletter was edited to spread, among all the participants, information about the other activities in the Programs. The areas of Administration and Economy are implementing a new computerized system to augment our efficiency and dynamics.

INTERVIEW TO SERGIO ZELAYA
“The point is that we all succeed"

Sergio lives in the same house where he was born 31 years ago, almost across El Campito –the Football Club and handball’s training site-. He begun collaborating in 2003, and he is in charge of the Sports area, where he works with the team and more than 170 youths, besides from promoting activities for all the other Programs.

Sergio -known by everyone as “Trucha”- attended high school in the close neighbourhood of Grand Bourg. Then, making an economical effort, he decided to study to be a Sports Professor: “Until my father died, I looked for jobs were I learned about Sports Education. Then I had to look for jobs were I earned more money, because we needed it”.

I chose sport because I saw that it could be a good vehicle for transmitting a message of overcoming problems, although I had almost no experience on the matter. My specialty had always been football, not handball. I had never been in a holyday camp or even in a pool”. “Luckily, a lot of people helped me and Youth Education supported me through a scholarship to pay the swimming pool where I trained. I sat for the exam several times but I failed until I finally passed it -says an emotive Sergio-. For that reason, I try to be a dignified professional every day, giving my best at work”.

Perhaps the main obstacle Trucha had to overcome was the cultural one: “An 80% within the family or acquaintances of many middle class kids who live in the Capital city are professionals, and the idea of not doing an university career does not cross their minds. But in this neighbourhood, those who studied were seen as out of place, more than with pride. There is a strip of adolescents and young people that are not too much convinced about their own possibilities. Our folks came from various provinces without a dime and built this neighbourhood from scratch. But many of them did not have the opportunity to study, and their fear to take chances and then loose all they achieved is now transmitted to the youngest”.

“From the Sport Project we try that children find support, the same encouraging discourse in many places from the area of Sports. The oldest realize that sport is an excuse and that being together is all that matters. Outside activities make people leave their homes and allow them to be known. They meet each other in the diverse activities, breaking prejudices and stereotypes along the way. Little by little they understand that they do not need a diploma hanging on the wall to be able to help others or change things, it is only a matter of predisposition and good will. That is what we accomplished” .

“I wish I live long enough as to see the changes. To feel that I am part of a project and of an idea, would have justified all the other things. I see myself as a lucky man because I do what I like. I walk through the neighbourhood and kids wave me, or talk to me about their problems, or come to my house to show me their school qualifications. We will do well as individuals when we do well as a group. The point is that we all succeed” .

News in pictures

ADULTS-FAMILIES PROGRAMME: addiction’s prevention and Social Promotion; children, youth and adults in Ophthalmology; health care for senior citizens. +photographs

YOUTH PROGRAMME: Sports Team meetings; Young Education general meeting; the Music Workshop celebrated its 5 year birthday. +photographs

CHILDREN PROGRAME: the anemia matter in the Nutrition Area; pre professional practices at the Game Space; weekly care on Mental Health. +photographs