Within the Youth Program, the Youth Education Project is carried through. This is a Project that supports the young people with scholarships, tutoring, academic support, a library to consult books and the Computers Laboratory to research in the internet or to prepare research papers. The objective is to contribute to the integral education and personal development of young people and teenagers.

Scholarships are, on the one hand, financial incentives, which help the children with transport expenses and other study materials and, on the other, monthly meetings and personalized support, together with scholar support. At the monthly meetings the money is handed over, an evaluation is made and the concerns are shared. Besides, Marcelo Berón, Responsible of Education, visits the beneficiaries individually in their homes.

They, instead, have to collaborate with a compensation, which can be, for instance, to be in charge of the library 6 hours per week or in charge of the Computer Class. This way two targets are fulfilled simultaneously: the youngsters are encouraged to continue their studies, and the space of the library and Computers Laboratory is kept open so that any student can make use of it.

With the cooperation of the beneficiaries, the library is already being opened almost every day of the week. Although a new bookcase is being installed, the space is working and it is possible to consult material either from elementary school to university level. It also works as a study place that many times the children can’t find at their homes because of the lack of space.

In this moment support classes are growing strong. For it, volunteer teachers are being contacted for the different subjects and levels, and one of the challenges that Youth Education has ahead is to get the resources to increase the number of scholarships progressively until reaching twenty five by the end of this year.

The families program achievements

The Families Program has many long-lasting activities. Fabiana Leoni, the new program coordinator -who became a member of our staff this year- explains: “Hard work has been done, and we can see the results today”.

There are 150 families participating in the Social Promotion area. Various groups were formed through the provision of goods some years ago. These groups keep on working year by year in workshops, talks and various activities. Besides, the coordinators have monthly meetings in order to get specific training and plan further activities, having achieved a high level of organization.

Within the Families Program, the “New Women” group has a three year training program where the graduates continue organizing meetings and activities after having finished the training. Besides, they will probably start collaborating with the first year group coordination. Another group, the “Young Mothers” group ,meets weekly, totalizing around 40 people together with the previous one.

In the “Old Age” group there are 80 people already enrolled who receive economic help and medicines. This group usually arranges meetings of around 30 people in which there are celebrations, rides, and courses like knitting, painting, cooking and handcrafting are organized.

In terms of the Program’s services, the Social Service has two social workers who visit families, interview them and refer them to a specialist in case of domestic violence or other complex issues. The professionals of this service have weekly meetings in order to expose and analyze the family cases, allowing the service to make an integral follow-up and give them real support.

The Health Service provides medicines and is planning to provide ophthalmological assistance and to organize health and hygienic courses. Within the Health Service, the Nutrition Service watches closely children’s physical development, providing them with food reinforcement to those children with nutrition problems.

The Children Program, which works together with the Social Service and the Health Service, gives pedagogical and psychological support to children.

Thanks to the Defensoría Itinerante del Juzgado de San Martín (Itinerant Defense Office of the San Martin’s Court), the Legal Counseling Service of EnAcción provides legal counseling once a week until June, when they will move their office to a place of their own a few blocks away. In the Housing area, the Self-Construction Service takes care of specific situations together in articulation with the professionals of the other areas.

Finally, it is planned to restart the adult literacy workshop this year together with the National University of General Sarmiento (UNGS), while some students from the National University of Luján (UNLU) are already participating in undergraduate practices. It is also planned to continue with the job trainning courses, both for young and grown people.

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