Comprehensive Training and Permanence in the Education System

“Not only did the project change my daughter’s life, improving her academic performance and participation; it also helped us to be better parents. The workshops with the psychologist helped all the parents, me in particular, to understand some of our children’s actions, but what’s most important is knowing how to correct forms of behavior that aren’t appropriate and how to encourage those that are correct, to enable them to be better people with every passing day.” 
Amalfis Hernández, mother of Aracelys Morelo H., Participant in the Integral Development Project 2010 – 2011. 

The initiative was selected because it is a private foundation that has demonstrated its ability to interconnect the actions of various public entities, universities, and business associations, making use of its experiences and strengths in arts and recreational education to ensure that children and young people from highly marginalized areas remain in school.

The foundation launched a customized scheme intended to create identity and a sense of belonging among children and young people from highly marginalized areas, to address the serious problem of school drop-out rates; it has attained positive results and has secured the commitment of different social actors. The lives of the children and young people have also been opened up to a transformational experience.

GOALS SOUGHT

The initiative helps improve academic results, and the continued attendance of children and young people at the public schools of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, and its neighboring settlements, through the implementation of strategies to make good use of free time with activities that promote culture and the arts.

WHAT IT INVOLVES

Working outside the school timetable, it promotes social development among children and young people in the Mamonal and Cartagena areas, the building of life skills, and improved school performance by keeping them away from the social problems that surround them in order to raise their self-esteem, belonging, and sense of identity with their communities. This is done through the following organizations, universities, associations, and companies:

Music for Colombia Foundation. Created in 2003 as a pedagogical proposal for children and young people in vulnerable situations, where music (choirs, youth orchestras, wind bands, and symphony orchestras) operate to restore the social fabric in communities that have been gravely affected by poverty and violence.

Ekobios National Folklore Company. A folk-dance troupe established in 1977, with a long history and experience in rescuing regional and national cultural identity. Winners for nine consecutive years of the Congo de Oro at the Barranquilla Carnival.

Theatre People Artistic Company. Its purpose is to disseminate the scenic arts, with an emphasis on at-risk children in Cartagena and its surroundings. It is notable for its teaching of theatre, puppetry, and artistic outreach and creation.

Standex Foundation. Promotes nutrition and social development through culture, sport, and recreation in Colombia and abroad, to assist people of limited resources in developing and improving their quality of life, particularly children and young people.

San Buenaventura University. The Psychology Faculty undertakes actions to guarantee the artistic, physical, creative, and expressive development of children and young people. It also works for the innovative construction of knowledge and skills in logical, abstract, and concrete thought.

Its contribution to democratic citizenship is based on its management model, which cuts across all the programs it carries out. Its governing principles are transparency, continuous improvement, cultural and ideological respect, promotion of autonomy, and neutrality; these actions guarantee the participants’ individual and collective recognition, allowing the students to create solid life plans to guide them in making correct decisions. Respect for the culture and identity of each of the communities allows the creation of experiences of diversity that enables individuals to see their heritage in a contemporary context and to become citizens who are agents of change.

TARGET AUDIENCE

This initiative is targeted at children and young people between the ages of 8 and 22, specifically those living in conditions of poverty and vulnerability.

During 2009, this initiative worked with a total of seven hundred and ninety-five (795) children and young people; in 2010, that figure rose to eight hundred and ninety-six (896) and, in 2011, to nine hundred and eighty-five (985).

The initiative also indirectly benefits the participants’ families. It is estimated that in 2009, the indirect beneficiaries totaled three thousand, one hundred and eighty (3,180) people, three thousand, nine hundred and twenty (3,920) in 2010, and four thousand, five hundred and twenty-five (4,525) in 2011.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Its most important achievement is that many children with scant expectations of schooling and in their life plans have been able to find options for their personal, academic, and social development at school, and that consequently they now enjoy both academic success and a deep-rooted sense of belonging and desire to better themselves.

It has also been successful in getting different initiatives to combine their efforts at schools to provide those social groups with hope and happiness.

HOW THE COMMUNITIES PARTICIPATE

The participants are involved from the start with the identification of problems, needs, and interests, the initial diagnostic assessment, and the preparation of the project profile.

Once the contributing companies have approved the profiles and project data-sheets, the participants receive direct assistance from the schools and the parents, who are presented with the proposed objectives and actions for attaining the goals set, together with the commitments they must assume as participants in the program.

That assistance allows the families and schools to understand, participate, and offer strategies to ensure the successful development of the projects.

TEACHERS’ PROFILE

The Foundation issues invitations to select the operators who will guide the program’s different activities. Those operators are the companies or associations that provide the teachers who will teach the workshops and courses. Their training is related to the subject matter of the programs: dance, music, theatre, plastic arts, etc:

• ¡Uy que nota! Musical Troupe:  Training in orchestral music: choirs, youth orchestras, and wind bands.
• Re-Creando:  A project to develop communicational, linguistic, civic, environmental, and leadership skills through artistic activities and play.
• ¡Tirando Pase! Dance Troupe: A group that is qualified in folk and contemporary dance, paraphernalia, artistic make-up, and the rescue of oral traditions.
• FormArte: Promotes the native art of a region through techniques such as charcoal, oils, modeling, etc.

INVESTMENT AND FINANCING

The program invests an annual amount of some three hundred and sixty thousand (360,000) U.S. dollars. The funds come from the member companies of the Bolívar chapter of the National Association of Business Owners of Colombia (ANDI), as well as from Ecopetrol, Reficar, Dow Química, Propilco, Sociedad Aeroportuaria de la Costa, and Puerto de Mamonal.

Contributions are also received from Fondo Unido, the function of which is to channel resources from employees and private donors into social projects.

EVALUATION AND RESULTS

Each month, through their appointed representatives, the beneficiaries, operators, parents, companies, and schools are able to assess and make suggestions for the improvement of the different actions taken in the implementation of the projects. These committee meetings are held every month and offer an opportunity for the free expression of ideas, opinions, and constructive criticism.

Three times a year, the coordinator conducts a performance evaluation of the operators and of the commitment of the direct and indirect participants; image surveys of the various participating companies are also prepared to assess the level of recognition the project enjoys within the community. 

RISK FACTORS

One of the main risks identified in the initiative is a reduction in the funding allocated to social projects by the companies involved, which could occur, for example, in the event of an economic recession.

Other risks involve drop-out rates or the forced displacement of the participants, and the effects of climate change affecting Cartagena.

FUTURE PLANS

Some of the organization’s future priorities are to institutionalize the projects at the schools and to replicate the projects at other schools and in other communities.

To implement those projects, they are considering training the participants themselves so that going forward they can also serve as trainers within their communities.

REPLICATION POTENTIAL

Since 2009, the allocated resources have been doubled, to ensure that the students stay in school and improve their academic performance. Companies are beginning to recognize the potential of the cultural and artistic process to mediate and transform, over the long term, individual and collective behaviors.

As the result of this growth, the organization went from having one band in a single community to have wind and string bands at six schools.

www.fundacionmamonal.org.co

PERSON IN CHARGE: Johana Agudelo Gaviria, Project Coordinator. Mamonal Foundation. (Local-area private institution.) jagudelo@fundacionmamonal.org.co – jagudelo@andi.com.co