La Rayuela is a community project run by the NGO Mundos Hermanos, based in the town of Chinchinā in the coffee-producing region. Through a comprehensive programme of individual and family support, education and vocational training, this initiative aims to prevent children from engaging in harmful labour, secure their basic rights and provide them with the education and training needed to find legal employment in adulthood. Around 200 children aged between 5 and 18 attend the programme on a regular basis. The academic support, which focuses on building literacy, numeracy and motor skills, aims to recuperate each child’s academic level, and when they are ready, return to school. La Rayuela works closely with the children’s families and carries out follow-up visits to the children’s schools to ensure that this process is sustainable.

The vocational programme focuses on two main skills areas: bakery and carpentry. While younger children receive pre-vocational training, older children focus on setting up small businesses in these areas.

To date, older children have been able to attend courses in areas such as accountancy and food hygiene, carry out visits to flour mills and carpentry trade fairs, and have begun making a profit in the small businesses they run. The youth-led bakery business has designed a range of confectionary that promotes children’s rights using slogans on the product packaging.

La Rayuela is a project of Children of the Andes – a UK based Charity.

For more information: www.childrenoftheandes.org

Activities In India

Child Aid Foundation

We support this children’s educational charity based in Vijayawada, India

The main objective is to enable poor and needy children to pursue and complete their education to as high a level as they desire and are capable of achieving. To do this, Child Aid Foundation provides comprehensive aid and care to children, both boys and girls, of all ages and academic levels, on a residential and non-residential basis. This aid and care includes nutritious food, clothing, shelter, education, vocational training, medical care, counselling, and job placement.

Many children find themselves in critical situations through no fault of their own. If they do not receive aid and care, they become child labourers, street children, or even juvenile delinquents. Child Aid Foundation identifies and saves these types of children. In this way, it works in the areas of prevention and cure as it deals with the causes and the effects. Child Aid Foundation transforms the very dependent and fragile child into an educated, confident, and self-reliant young adult in as short a time as possible. In this way, the maximum possible number of children is helped in the minimum possible time. A great number of children have already been saved and become assets to the society and country in which they live.www.childaidfoundation.org

MCKS FOUNDATION - Andhra Pradesh

The MCKS Foundation works in four areas in order to achieve the core objective of building a better life for the underprivileged in society:

The Health Programme
We realise that feeding the hungry is a fundamental relief measure. However, its benefits would be futile unless it is backed by healthcare and medication for the poor and needy. To this end, we provide medicines, healthcare supplies and medical counseling services to those in need. Many of these people are also being given free basic Pranic Healing courses to enable them to heal themselves and others around them.

The Livelihood Programme
We are focused on the rehabilitation of disadvantaged sections of society. We help by providing opportunities and access to resources needed to launch and sustain a livelihood. The foundation financially supports such people in attending training workshops to acquire new skills so that they may have means of improving their lives and increasing their economic opportunities.
www.gmcks.org