Charitable Works > Features of our Charitable Works > Educational Centers

The Foundation’s Educational Centers adhere to the concept of integrating schools. They address the needs of children attending the Homes of the Foundation (Homes and Day Care Centers), as well as the needs of children living in the catchment area of our schools. These children and adolescents attend our Centers either because of their extreme poverty or because they lack schooling.

What can we offer those children excluded from the school system?

• A containing and educational space that accepts them the way they are, that will prepare them for life and enable them to be inserted in society
• A school environment ready and attentive to their special needs
• A school like any other, but one that does not exclude them socially but understands them and accompanies them in their development
• A model of school where children feel comfortable, safe, protected, understood, where they feel they have found their place

Children at social risk have specific maturation and developmental problems that affect their schooling, such as:

• Maturation delay
• Behavioral disorders (restless and violent, attention disorders, disorganized)
• Speech and sound disorders
• Slow learning
• Personality disorders
• Little or no cultural background -some adolescents and adults do not know how to read or write

Academically, they are often:

• Repeaters
• Older than their classroom peers
• Have poor reading and mathematics skills
• Of low intellect
• Obtain low grades in several subjects
• Do not complete their class-work
• Show discrepancy between development and skills
• Of inconsistent performance -excellent in some fields and poor in others
• Have poor studying habits

The personal behavior of children living “in and off the street” is characterized mainly by a difficulty in accepting authority and by an absence of limits. Besides, they are unable to solve disputes in a positive manner. Children who have been socially excluded, no matter for how long, are indifferent to disciplinary measures, they have great difficulty in expressing their feelings, and seldom participate in school activities as opposed to other children.

In general, the family entourage of children at risk does not favor the implanting of the values the school is trying to install. Children living in our Homes and attending our Educational Centers report to a Juvenile Court, their parents are often separated, unemployed, with scarce economic resources or living in extreme poverty. In many cases these children have witnessed death, divorce, separation or family abandonment. In general, their family entourage assigns little or no importance to school. The more distressing cases include parents who are addicted or violent and whose conduct has a direct or indirect impact on their children.

The Concept of Integrating Schools

Integrating schools require professional competence and several projects and activities. A school wishing to integrate with a population at social risk must think of activities and lessons that are meaningful to a child and his/her reality.

Learning must be based on everyday things which will make them better and will enrich them by expanding their world of symbols, enabling them to learn according to their capabilities with the necessary time to systematize what they have learnt. At our Educational Centers curricula take into account the reality and the needs of the children, their previously acquired knowledge and their everyday experience. The working project is adapted to the level of each child, so that the child may acquire new knowledge at his/her own pace. Every project includes a core topic and a goal that may appeal to the group.

Children at risk were not taught systematically or formally in accordance with their age. However, by living in the street, buying, selling and working at a very young age they have come to learn other things. The aim is to take advantage of such knowledge and use it as a platform for further learning in order to introduce them to systematic learning, respecting their times and avoiding frustration. Learning is slow in these children and anything new takes much longer to teach than expected. The aim is to advance knowledge within the child’s capabilities and limitations.

There are major areas of education, each having specific objectives:

Fine Arts: To promote the children’s contact with art, so that they may express themselves through drawing and take pleasure in working with different materials. These children are usually very skilful with their hands and enjoy it greatly.

Musical Education: A recreational space to create music, learn songs and play various instruments.

Physical Education: Intense activity is essential. Since these are very active children intense physical activity is carried out in the afternoon with the purpose of entertaining and, at the same time, training them.

Workshops: These are aimed at integrating knowledge and acquired skills with specific activities, in accordance with the different age groups.

The Foundation’s Educational Centers are integrating and productive institutions open to the community.

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