Current Projects
SHELTER
<Day centre for children from the Alto de la Virgen district in Medellin.
(COLOMBIA)>
<Permanent residence for children from the Digha district in the outskirts of
Mumbai (INDIA)>
<Project providing full support for children of single mothers or widows from
various slums (INDIA)>
EDUCATION
<Sewing workshop for teenagers from the Dindoshi slum area (INDIA)>
<High school scholarship programme for teenagers from the Jogeshwari slum
(INDIA)>
<High school and university scholarships for teenagers from the Alto de la
Virgen district in Medellin (COLOMBIA)>
<Scholarship for 45 secondary school students at Thiaroye college Dakar (SENEGAL)>
<Construction of the second building for secondary school students at Thiaroyecollege, Dakar (SENEGAL)>
<“Future Little Stars” school support programme in the Alto de la Virgen slums, Medellin (COLOMBIA)>
FOOD
<Food/Schooling programme at the Ganeshnagar slum (INDIA)>
<Food programme for children under 3 years in the Nou Barris district, CIUTAT MERIDIANA (BARCELONA). SATISFACTORILY CONCLUDED>
<Food programme for children from 3 to 12 years at a summer camp in Ciutat Meridiana- Nou Barris (BARCELONA)>
HEALTHCARE AND AID FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES
<Rehabilitation project for children with mental and physical disabilities in the
Andheri East slums (INDIA)>
<Project for individual reconstructive surgery for children with physical and mental disabilities living in the Andheri East slums (INDIA).>
<Health Clinic at Dindoshi slum (INDIA)>
<Mobile Clinic" project. Medical ambulance unit in Mira Road slums (INDIA)>
Day centre for children from the Alto de la Virgen district in Medellin (COLOMBIA).
At this day centre in the heart of the Alto de la Virgen favela in the XIV Shanty town on the periphery of Medellin-Colombia, PROiNFANTS opens its doors to 48 children from 3 to 8 years every morning and provides day-long shelter and basic education so that they can attend public school. The centre is run by our partners in Medellin, the Fundación Educativa Calasanz. This is the foundation of the Pia School, in collaboration with the Alma Atá volunteer and parent association, which operates in this conflictive shantytown, where many internally “displaced” persons also congregate, forced to migrate due to the guerrilla movements.
Permanent residence for children from the Digha district in the outskirts of Mumbai (INDIA).
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PROiNFANTS promotes, maintains and finances this permanent residence which is run by the Sisters of Charity of St. Anne. It has a capacity for 50 children, between the age of 6 and 16 years, providing 24-hour care for this group of children, who are mostly orphans. The centre, located in a very quiet area, is very close to Saint Joseph’s semi-private school, where the children can attend every day and receive regular education. PROiNFANTS fully finances the accommodation, food, clothing, school supplies and education for these children in the hope that they can feel "at home" in the centre. These street children have often lived roughly in extremely precarious conditions in railway platforms or have come from severely dysfunctional families, living way below the poverty line, in the immense slums of Mumbai's peripheral belt.
Project providing full support for children of single mothers or widows from various slums (INDIA).
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Thanks to the high level of expertise we find at Ashadeep, our partner in the field, PROiNFANTS has also been able to provide preferential care for women through a comprehensive project to provide shelter for children, mostly girls, of single mothers or widows. In the Mumbai Andheri East slums, these women are not only isolated, but they often suffer major socially rejection. This project takes in, provides food and clothing and funds the education of these children so that their mothers can contribute by working and keeping their "homes". This project was initially set up as a memorial to one of our collaborators, Maria Luïsa Farré, and funded up to 2015. Now it will continue to be funded and further consolidated by PROiNFANTS from 2016 on.
Sewing workshop for teenagers from the Dindoshi slum area (INDIA).
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In the capable hands of PROiNFANTS’s partner, Ashadeep Association, we finance a professional training course for 30 young girls from the Dindoshi slum in Mumbai, who attend a basic dressmaking course five mornings or afternoons a week. One of the rooms at the day centre has been equipped with 15 manual sewing machines and all the material necessary to provide proper training, once they have completed their basic schooling, so that they may gain a qualification and help them get a job and achieve some sustainability in their own neighbourhood.
High school scholarship programme for teenagers from the Jogeshwari slum (INDIA).
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In collaboration with its partner, Macarism Group, PROiNFANTS funds scholarships for two groups of adolescent boys and girls living in very precarious conditions in the Jogeshwari slum in Mumbai. After compulsory education, our scholarships cover tuition fees, equipment, meals and travel for non-compulsory education in semi-private schools, allowing these students to obtain their baccalaureate. Otherwise these students would be forced to seek all sorts of jobs just to survive in the slums.
High school and university scholarships for teenagers from the Alto de la Virgen district in Medellin (COLOMBIA).
The aim of this project, which is titled "Grants for a better future" is to ensure that the children receiving the scholarships complete secondary school and go on to higher education (technology or professional), avoiding “school drop-outs" which is very common in this environment. The ten students receiving the scholarship will have their fees and maintenance covered. This is managed by the Fundación Educativa Calasanz, one of the partners working with PROiNFANTS.
Scholarship for 45 secondary school students at Thiaroye college, Dakar (SENEGAL).
In the hands of Éducation Solidaire, our partner in Senegal, this is a scholarship programme for about 40 secondary school students in the Thiaroye district just outside Dakar. This grant, funded by PROiNFANTS, includes tuition, books, all school materials and uniforms.
Construction of the second building for secondary school students at Thiaroye college, Dakar (SENEGAL).
In the hands of Éducation Solidaire, our partner in Senegal, this is a scholarship programme for about 40 secondary school students in the Thiaroye district just outside Dakar. This grant, funded by PROiNFANTS, includes tuition, books, all school materials and uniforms.
“Future Little Stars” school support programme in the Alto de la Virgen slums, Medellin (COLOMBIA).
In 2017, PROiNFANTS will continue and expand its efforts in Medellin,together with its partner Fundación Educativa Calasanz, where it will co-finance a programme called “Estrellitas al Futuro” (Future LittleStars) to support continued education. This project will benefit34 children and teenagers from public schools; 15 at primary and 19 at secondary level.
All these 34 children will comefrom the Alto de la Virgen informal settlement, an extreme slum in Medellin's Comuna 13. Our partner will select them from among ex-students of the former day centre that we co-fundedfor 8 years. The project will include special school support and monitoring,with regular personalised accompanying provided by qualified volunteers every week at the Calasanz schoolat the foot of the Commune.
This project also hopes to provide group support activities to include close family members, and occasional visits to cultural centres or events of collective interest.
The many aims of thisFuture LittleStarsprogramme include reducing the unrelenting dropout rates at public schools in this area, accompanying and reinforcing the children’s educational needs, motivating them and creating links so that these students might go on to complete their education. They could even avail of the subsequent PROiNFANTS programme called "Scholarships for a Better Future" and obtain a vocational or university qualification.
The participants will be assessed three times a year. Academic indicators shall be generated and compared, and the possibility of continuing will be evaluatedindividually at the end of the year in a final report.
Food/Schooling programme at the Ganeshnagar slum (INDIA).
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Our partner, the Sisters of Charity of St. Anne, is carrying out a pioneering project to promote education and schooling, thanks to the contribution from PROiNFANTS. At 8 every morning by the entrance of the immense Ganeshnagar slum in Mumbai, 100 children aged 6 to 14 years gather to pick up their daily food ration (150 ml of milk, two eggs and a bag of rice) on the condition that their families accompany them to school, where attendance is confirmed with a daily signature inthe year log-book provided.
Food programme for children under 3 years in the Nou Barris district, CIUTAT MERIDIANA (BARCELONA). SATISFACTORILY CONCLUDED
From 2017 on, this three-year project will no longer operate as our partners now believe that the support from Local Authorities and other collaborating entities is sufficient to meet the needs of this group of children.
Food programme for children from 3 to 12 years at a summer camp in Ciutat Meridiana - Nou Barris (BARCELONA).
In 2015, PROiNFANTS expanded its contribution to children’s food projects in the same district of Barcelona. This involved the summer camps held every August by our partner called Associació La Indomable.With our help, the camp provides full meals every day for 45 children, as well as its programme of educational and leisure activities aimed at the most disadvantaged and excluded groups in the neighbourhood. Due to the excellent results with this project, PROiNFANTS will also fund the meals for the coming summer camp in 2016.
Rehabilitation project for children with mental and physical disabilities in the Andheri East slums (INDIA).
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PROiNFANTS has also undertaken to tackle the problem of child poverty by supporting a very special project to help children and adolescents with high dependency levels due to their disabilities and belonging to a population marked by structural poverty in various slums in Mumbai. Our executing partner in this case is Mumbai Cheshire Home, a highly-specialised local expert Indian organisation. They provide weekly physiotherapy and functional rehabilitation sessions at their centre, as well as school support depending on the child’s needs. It also promotes small community working groups with families, so that they may exchange personal experiences and receive collective training depending on the various dependency levels.
Occasionally PROiNFANTS oversees some very specific surgical procedures. In 2014, for example, a very successful reconstructive surgical procedure was conducted for the functional rehabilitation of a 4-year-old child from the Jogeshwari (W) slum who was born with left hemiplegia cerebral palsy and unable to move or use his left arm.
Project for individual reconstructive surgery for children with physical and mental disabilities living in the Andheri East slums (INDIA).
In the hands of this same partner in Mumbai, early in 2015 PROiNFANTS embarked on an individualised child health project. This involved covering the entire costs of four surgical procedures aimed at resolving major functional defects in children living in situations of very high dependency due to their disability and that would not be resolved with the functional rehabilitation and physiotherapy services provided at Mumbai Cheshire Home, as described in the previous project. The aim of these surgeries is to address various joint and muscle atrophy with the aim of improving both the mobility and quality of life of these children. The success seen in the first year has convinced PROiNFANTS to continue this project and do the same for other children in 2016 and thereafter.
Health Clinic at Dindoshi slum (INDIA)
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PROiNFANTS also affirms its interest in helping children living on the streets in Mumbai’s slums by contributing to a free healthcare programme. Our partner in the field, Ashadeep, has moved into the slum. Each year, with our help, it strengthens its adult and child healthcare service for the people living around the day care centre it opened in the Dindoshi slum. A small medical team, consisting of a specially-hired doctor and a social worker, attend patients with all kinds of common illnesses due to poor hygiene and malnutrition, among other causes. Medicines are also provided free of charge.
Mobile Clinic project. Medical ambulance unit in Mira Road slums (INDIA).
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Every day two health professionals, a nurse and an assistant, drive an ambulance around several slums in the Mira Road area of Mumbai to attend to the most disadvantaged populations. Their primary aim is disease prevention and raising awareness about basic health issues. As these are marginalised areas where basic sanitation is lacking and access to adequate medical care complicated, the aim is to rapidly identify new patients, provide immediate care to people with health problems or to transport patients directly to hospital if necessary. Medicines are provided free of charge, as well as education on health, hygiene and prevention. This project is run by our partners the Sisters of Charity of St. Anne.
