ASTREA-ICSCE y RSCJ: Growing up together

The project Growing up together started in 2000 in the neighbourhood of El Talar, in Pando, Uruguay.

There’s a public school in the neighbourhood, named Escuela 165. The primary and secondary school students of El Talar should go to study there every day. However, the reality is different: a lot of families living in the neighbourhood struggle to satisfy their basic needs. These are one-parent families: where the woman is in charge of everybody and everything. According to the studies made by specialists of the Iname (National Institution of Minor’s), the number of kids in these homes ranges between seven and fifteen. These kids are forced to go out into the streets to look for support and sustenance, and that’s just too much for their mother, because she cannot control them nor teach them how to be careful.

The RSCJ, a local institution that helps these families on a teaching, sanitary and social level, has been working for many years just to help their neighbours gain a better quality of life. ASTREA ICSCE and RSCJ started a project in 2000, which was set up in order to give support to the families by registering their kids in workshops in the afternoon straight after school. The fundamental aim was to create a place where each child could work on their homework and recreational activities together with other kids and be away from the dangers which life on the streets brings. They all receive a snack in the afternoon which often represents the only meal they have in the entire day. They also receive school support for their homework in order to reinforce what they’ve learnt at the school.

The project still works thanks to the support of the RSCJ, Pando logistics and the cession of the premises by one of the village’s citizens.