PARAGUAY, Dequení. The Dequení Foundation awarded scholarships to 3,500 children this March. This campaign is held each year with the collaboration of many sponsors, business leaders, civil servants with social responsibility, and important support from foreign benefactors many of them through this International Schoenstatt website.
Presentation of scholarships
The presentation of scholarships and school kits began on March 4th at Dequení and concluded on the 16th in Ciudad del Este. The initial ceremony was held at the Fernando del la Mora headquarters with the children and families who participate in the project House of Shelter, the community center Mita Rehehape, and Future of the Children from Augusto Saldivar present. Those invited and attending this meeting were representatives from businesses, the National Secretary of Children and Adolescents, and CCFC.
The Scholarship Campaign 2011, “Giving Memories,” is carried out every year with the aim of convoking the support of citizens for the education of at-risk children, those who do not enter school or who abandon it due to the poverty situation that many families face. The campaign to raise funds was carried out from September 2010 to February 2011.
This service complemented with the mentoring that the children receive throughout the year in the open and community centers of the Foundation consists in providing a backpack with all the supplies requested by their school: uniforms, shoes, and a reinforcement kit at mid- year.
Children from Caacupé receive their scholarships
150 children from the Open House Center for Children of the Dequení Foundation received their scholarships that ensures their access to and retention in the educational system.
The presentation ceremony was held at the open center on Friday March 4th at 9:00 a.m. with the presence of the children and the families who participate in the project. Representatives from Vision Bank, a business that supported the Scholarship Campaign 2011, “Giving Memories,” attended this ceremony.
The scholarship is a part of one of the educational services that they receive in the open and community center consisting of providing a backpack with all the basic supplies requested by their school along with the uniform and shoes. Moreover, each child receives mentoring and tutoring by the Dequení teachers throughout the year.
Open House Center for Children
The children who attend the center regularly receive tutoring, nourishment, basic medical attention for the prevention of diseases, besides activities for mentoring the family.
The objective of the project is to diminish and/or eradicate the hours that children are on the streets by strengthening their education and providing wholesome attention.
For the education of the children of Paraguay
It is important to stress that through 2011 Scholarships, the Dequení Foundation allows 3,500 children from the projects of Ypané, Ciudad del Este, and Caaguazú to attend school.
Besides guaranteeing the education of the children, Dequení (founded twenty-five years ago by the Schoenstatt Youth) has accompanied the communities in strengthening the committees that work to better the living conditions of the families. Of the twenty-six projects that exist at this time, twenty-one are community centers, and in some cases, they are already are run by their own residents. Dequení supports the education of little girls because it is considered as a fundamental strategy to prevent child labor and to break the cycle of poverty of families and communities.
Dequeni in Internet: www.dequeni.org.py
