Fundación Arco Iris
| Fundación Arco Iris | |
|---|---|
|
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| founding | 1994 |
| founder | Josef Maria Neuenhofer |
| Seat | La Paz , Bolivia |
| Action space | La Paz / El Alto, Bolivia |
| Website | www.arcoirisbolivia.org |
The Fundación Arco Iris (“Rainbow Foundation”) is an aid organization that supports children and young people on and off the street, and increasingly for social projects such as kindergartens, day-care centers and schooling. The operational area is primarily in the Bolivian capital La Paz and in the neighboring city of El Alto . The foundation was established in 1994 by the German pastor Josef Maria Neuenhofer. Today the foundation operates four homes for children and young people, ten other social projects and a hospital.
Homes
Hogar Niñas Obrajes
The Hogar Niñas Obrajes is a girls' home in the Obrajes district. Up to 120 girls and young women between the ages of 5 and 18 who suffer from deep mental and physical wounds live in the dormitory. You have experienced physical violence, sexual abuse, hunger and illness and grew up without a permanent bond with an adult. The children and young women not only receive a roof over their heads and regular meals, but also professional psychological and medical care as well as a wide-ranging leisure and educational program. They are initially looked after during their school career, and at the age of 16 they are given the opportunity to begin technical training.
Hogar Casa Esperanza
Casa Esperanza, translated as "House of Hope", is the boys' dormitory run by the Arco Iris Foundation in the Villa Copacabana district of La Paz. It accommodates up to 70 children and young people aged 10 to 18 who - like the girls in the "Hogar Niñas Obrajes “- suffering from deep emotional and physical wounds. Her life on the street was marked by violence, hunger and lack of ties. The home enables the children and young men to receive a school education and technical training to lead them into a hopeful future. At the age of 16, depending on their skills and inclinations, they are also given technical training. This training forms the basis for an independent future.
Casa Refugio
Underage pregnant women and mothers live in the Casa Refugio. There are many young mothers in La Paz who live on the streets with their children. Most of these are underage women who have been raped, humiliated and then rejected by their families when they were pregnant. Since they do not receive any support from the state, these women often have the street as their only refuge. You can also find one of these in Casa Refugio, the "House of Refuge". It offers 20 pregnant women between 12 and 18 years of age accommodation for one to two years, supports them socially, psychologically and in everyday matters and enables them to begin training. The aim is for every young woman to one day be able to found her own home, have a permanent job and develop a stable personality. The project also organizes courses in schools, homes and other institutions on topics such as family planning , domestic violence, etc.
Casa de Paso Acogida
The Casa de Paso Acogida home plays a very important role as a transitional home for up to 30 boys between the ages of 12 and 18. Children and young people who have been living on the street for a long time have to slowly get used to living in a home. At Casa de Paso, all needs are covered, including medical and psychological care to counteract the effects of life on the street. As a result of life on the street, many children and adolescents have already had experiences with alcohol and other drugs at an early age , which have severely impaired their development. These problems are addressed at the Casa de Paso.
Social projects
Betaña
The Centro Betaña is located in one of the poorest districts of La Paz and offers children from poor families support with arithmetic, reading and writing. The parents of these children are often illiterate and cannot give any help. With tutoring the connection to the state education should be achieved. In addition, the often poorly nourished children are provided with healthy, vitamin-rich food. 180 children take part in the homework supervision program, 50 preschool children attend the project's kindergarten. The Centro Betaña also organizes meetings with parents, supports the children with school supplies, offers handicraft courses for mothers and organizes sports and leisure activities.
Centro Integral Periférica
The Centro Integral Periférica project consists of three areas: the kindergarten, homework support and the youth center. Well-rounded care is offered here for all age groups.
Apoyo Educativo Integral
The Apoyo Educativo Integral project is day care and homework support for children between the ages of 6 and 14. The children who are looked after come from socially disadvantaged families. Parents have to work all day on the street, often as a shoe shine or saleswoman. So almost all parents are also members of one of the Trabajadores, Calle, Apoyo Social Familiar or Ex-Beneficiarios projects. The project also offers literacy courses as well as computer and internet courses for adults.
CEIKU
Around 60 children whose mothers go to work during the day, mostly on the street, are cared for in the CEIKU kindergarten. The children are cared for all day and supported in their physical, intellectual, social and moral development.
Apoyo Social Familiar
The Apoyo Social Familiar, translated as “Family Aid Program”, supports more than 100 families who live in extreme poverty. It sees itself as a preventive project, as many children from these families are in danger of becoming street children. The families receive grants for food and rent, as well as medical care, legal advice and school supplies, limited to one year. So that the families can improve their situation themselves, the project staff help, for example, with finding jobs or through training courses. The families' own initiatives, such as opening a small shop, are also supported.
Calle
The street social worker project Calle is aimed at children and young people who live on the streets in La Paz for various reasons, be it as orphans, as outcasts or as refugees from domestic violence. These are children and young people who live under bridges, in cemeteries or in other places in the open air and survive through theft or prostitution. The street children are visited every day by the team of street workers at their whereabouts and receive social and psychological help. These street children can also take part in sporting activities, for example, and come to the “Casa de Paso” project to wash themselves, have lunch and receive medical care. Sometimes Arco Iris succeeds in locating families or relatives of the children and resolving conflicts so that the children can return to their families. If this does not succeed, a transfer to one of the Fundación Arco Iris dormitories is possible.
Ex-Beneficiarios
The Ex-Beneficiarios project looks after former children in the four homes of Arco Iris. Since many of the “alumni” have no families, the Ex-Beneficiarios Project is often their only point of contact to talk about problems or to get support. On the way to self-employment, they often need help from the foundation over a longer period of time. This can be a grant, a grant to rent or help with finding a job. The project also offers support in the event of illness.
Trabajadores
The Trabajadores project works with children, young people and adults who earn their living on the streets. They are offered a wide-ranging education and leisure program, an austerity program is organized and psychosocial advice and support are offered. The project offers access to educational opportunities, for example technical training or school education, and the children can also get advice there on legal matters and much more.
Centro Juvenil
The Centro Juvenil is aimed at young people and offers a library, a computer room with internet access, a festival and theater hall, but also music and dance courses and much more. The aim of the project is to offer young people a meaningful way of spending their free time in order to counteract problems such as alcoholism, drug use in general and the formation of gangs.
Unidades Productivas
The Unidades Productivas are the foundation's own workshops in which former street children from an Arco Iris facility receive vocational training, for example in a carpenter's shop, a bakery, in a handicraft workshop, in a restaurant or in two shops that offer goods from their own bakery. The main aim of these workshops is to train young people from projects run by the foundation and to integrate them into the work process. More than 60 young people are being trained in the workshops or have found work there.
Hospital Arco Iris
The medical care of all children and young people in the projects is an important concern of the Arco Iris Foundation. That is why she opened her own hospital in 2001, the Hospital Arco Iris (HAI). It has a capacity of 100 beds and offers both outpatient and inpatient treatment, emergency room, general medical examinations, clinical laboratory, x-ray examinations, cardiac exams and computed tomography.
A pharmacy and ambulance, social work, psychology and physiotherapy complete the program. Since the hospital opened, more than 60,000 street children, children and adolescents from the dormitories and Arco Iris projects, as well as poor families, have been treated free of charge, i.e. around 200 treatments per day.
The hospital also has three outpatient wards. Every day they drive to different places in the city in full capacity to treat the poorest like street children, shoe shiners, etc., to make contacts and to draw attention to the offers from Arco Iris.
financing
The foundation is mainly financed by private donors and depends on them. Donations from Germany go to the "Association for the Promotion of Street Children in Bolivia eV Rottweil", which exclusively supports the Fundación Arco Iris. The “Arco Iris Foundation” aims to secure the Fundación Arco Iris in the long term. In addition, Fundación Arco Iris receives support from the “ Kindermissionswerk ” and the American non-profit organization “Arco Iris America”.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Arco Iris | Welcome. In: www.foerderverein-arco-iris.de. Retrieved May 9, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c Arco Iris | Dormitories. In: www.foerderverein-arco-iris.de. Retrieved May 9, 2016 .
- ↑ Arco Iris | Family projects. In: www.foerderverein-arco-iris.de. Retrieved May 9, 2016 .
- ↑ Arco Iris | Casa de Paso project. In: www.foerderverein-arco-iris.de. Retrieved May 9, 2016 .
- ↑ Arco Iris | Family projects. In: www.foerderverein-arco-iris.de. Retrieved May 9, 2016 .
- ↑ Arco Iris | Hospital Arco Iris. In: www.foerderverein-arco-iris.de. Retrieved May 9, 2016 .