- Without strong and consistent programs for their development, the community’s youth become involved in youth gangs, drug-addiction, sexual abuse, and early pregnancy.
- Some have been forced to join armed groups or have done so voluntarily.·
- Girls who become pregnant stop studying and often must start taking care of their children by themselves, leading to lives of poverty.
- For teens who finish high school, there are not many opportunities to continue studying or get good jobs.
- World Vision supports sports, music and arts schools to help children build confidence, learn teamwork and cooperation, and develop their individual potential, creativity, and self esteem.
- The Peace Builders group helps adolescents learn that peace is not just the absence of violence but also a commitment to build peace with others and within one’s self.
- Workshops share information about HIV/AIDS risk behaviors, alcoholism, and drug addiction in order to involve youth in the prevention of these problems.
- Workshops identify vulnerability and risk factors and help children develop the confidence to make good decisions.
- Meetings recognize boys and girls as active members of the community with both rights and responsibilities.
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- Unemployment and the lack of income have caused the breakdown of family relationships in San Mateo. Some parents have had to leave their families and go to other cities or places to look for a way to get money.
- Unemployment also contributes to a constant threat of violence and leads to petty crimes and even participation in organized crime. Violence and abuse are daily occurrences within the families of San Mateo.
- As part of World Vision’s work, adults take part in family schools, parents’ schools, and leadership training.
- At meetings and retreats, the “Good Treatment” program involves parents, children and community organizations in a program to re-evaluate accepted family concepts, values and acts in order to promote a culture of peace. Violence is rejected as a way to solve problems. The process promotes gender equality and seeks to strengthen the positive participation of men in family dynamics.
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- The economy in San Mateo is characterized by a high level of informal work such as street vending, garbage recycling, day working in homes (cleaning, washing, and ironing), and providing contract labor at construction sites.
- For most families, income does not reach even the level of a minimal wage. In most cases, women are in charge of providing for their families due to a high incidence of single mothers. Men who have regular employment often work as watchmen, drivers, and skilled workers.
- Poverty is severe, and children suffer most because they may be left alone while their parents go out to look for employment or any income they can find.
- Some children must work to help support their family. Their days are spent trying to go to school, study, and sell items on the buses or beg for money.
- World Vision provides “seed capital” (micro loans) to help some of the neediest families start small businesses such as becoming vendors of coffee or food or as dressmakers.
- Participants receive training to learn about basic administration, accounting, and marketing in order to help their businesses succeed.
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- Many children in San Mateo go to school, essentially, because they don’t have enough to eat and there they can have at least one daily meal.
- Almost all the children in certain communities have arrived displaced from areas of conflict in Colombia, and many are near starvation. Nearly 30% of Colombian children suffer some degree of malnutrition.
- It is difficult for many families to earn enough income to buy food to meet even basic nutritional needs.
- World Vision supports community kitchens that offer boys and girls access to a daily lunch, covering 50 percent of their daily food costs.·
- Families in difficult situations receive food packages. ·
- Parents receive training on safe food handling and preparation.
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- In San Mateo, available water is not safe to drink or readily accessible. For many families, the best option is to wait for the water tank truck to arrive at specific locations, carry the water to their homes, and keep it in storage.
- Some areas have a sewage system, but others do not have this service and waste waters flow through the community, bringing foul smells and exposing inhabitants to disease.
- Some houses are made of cast-off materials, with dirt floors and no defined places to cook, sleep or bathe. These are some of the causes of diarrhea and intestinal infections among the area’s children.
- World Vision provides storage tanks and purifiers for water to help families maintain a safe water supply.
- Health volunteers are trained to teach the community how to purify and preserve their water.
- Basic education on health promotion and iIlness prevention is provided.
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