COUNTRY / PROBLEM
Colombia is a country of enormous social and economic inequalities, with more than a third of the inhabitants living below the poverty line. According to data from 2014, 13% of the population lives in slums. Young pregnant women and teenage mothers are in a particularly difficult situation. Most of them are girls who raise children on their own, and who, without outside help, have no chance of getting an education. In this way, the vicious circle of poverty is repeated from generation to generation.
In the city of Cartagena de Indias, located in northern Colombia, the number of pregnancies among young girls is very high. Juanfe estimates that every year, more than four thousand teenagers who live there get pregnant. Most of them live in poor neighbourhoods.
ORGANISATION
Created in 2001, the Juanfe organisation of Colombia (initially known as Fundación Juan Felipe Gómez Escobar) seeks to improve the quality of life of teenage mothers and their children living in slums, mainly on the outskirts of Cartagena de Indias. Its founder, Catalina Escobar, is an activist, who, after experiencing a family tragedy, devoted her life to saving the lives of infants and young children as well as helping young pregnant girls who live in poverty.
The programmes carried out by Juanfe focus on providing its beneficiaries with vocational education combined with comprehensive psychological support and healthcare. The most important of these is the “360 Degrees” (“360 Grados”) programme, which lasts up to two years and consists of three phases. The first phase aims at developing social skills and boosting the self-esteem of teenage mothers. The second prepares them for work; the third phase is to help them find a job. To date, several thousand people have benefited from the programme in Cartagena de Indias. Due to its success, the “360 Degrees” programme is being implemented in other Latin American countries.
PROJECTS
The Kulczyk Foundation:
- donated funds for vocational training of 57 young mothers participating in the second phase of the “360 Degrees” programme,
- provided pre-school care for 41 children of the organisation’s beneficiaries participating in the second phase of the “360 Degrees” programme,
- provided six thousand meals to the beneficiaries of Juanfe participating in the “360 Degrees” programme,
- donated funds to five small enterprises started by teenage mothers participating in the third phase of the “360 Degrees” programme.
