Program Details
The Orphaned Starfish Foundation currently funds seventeen projects in eight countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mexico, and Panama.
We partner with each of these programs to provide technology and life skills training so that they will be able to provide for themselves and grow into successful adults:
The Fundacion Nuevo Dia Program
La Paz, Bolivia
In the City of La Paz, there are 14 social organizations of children and youth who work in the streets as shoe-shiners – at the expense of their education. Forty percent of all the members of these organizations are affiliated with Fundacion Nuevo Dia (FND), an autonomous nonprofit institution managed by its current and former beneficiaries.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
The Orphaned Starfish Foundation has partnered with Save the Children to provide a telecenter for FND. Orphaned Starfish has funded the acquisition of the hardware and Save the Children provides the curriculum and monitors the project.
The telecenter allows youth workers to have the skills to continue their studies and improve the quality of their homework. The program gives them a broader vision of the world, helps them take advantage of new employment opportunities, and increases their self-esteem. Participants who gain employment in a computer related area as a result of the training experience an increase in both their income and social status. These advances contribute to the overall goal of improving the educational environment of street workers in La Paz so that they have the skills and self-confidence to continue their studies and thereby break the cycle of poverty for future generations.
The telecenter was inaugurated in June 2007.
Proyecto Horizonte – Ushpa Ushpa
Cochabamba, Bolivia
The community of “The Mineros San Juan,” Ushpa-Ushpa is located 10km southeast of the city of Cochabamba. There are approximately 1,500 families living under the poorest of economic conditions. Due to its illegal status, Ushpa-Ushpa lacked basically any infrastructure or coverage with utilities. Many inhabitants are without work and can only find short-term or seasonal jobs and the 1,500 families has an average of 4 to 6 children. The current status of health of the Ushpa-Ushpa population is sub-standard. Breathing problems and diarrhea are common and particularly widespread among the children.
Together with The “Saint Vincent de Paul” Society, Proyecto Horizonte – Ushpa Ushpa was founded in 2004 to build a day care center for children. The project grew to include a health care center and a school. Today there are 150 children between the ages of 1 to 6 years attending the 5 levels of the “Education Initial,” and a daycare program. A recently inaugurated school has 600 children between the ages of 6 to 14 years in attendance. During the evening hours, a school program for adults is also provided. The youngest student is 16 years old, the oldest 62, and the majority of the students are women.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
The Orphaned Starfish Foundation partnered with Save the Children to provide a computer center to serve the 600 children between the ages of 6 to 14 years who attend the school. OSF provided funds to furnish and equip the center with sixteen computers including software and all the necessary furniture. Save the Children provides the curriculum for the computer classes and facilitates the training of the teachers.
The Instituto Socio-Educacional pro-Ciudadania (ISEC)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
ISEC is a home for approximately 80 children and young adults, with seven separate social and educational programs designed to improve the lives of children in the barrios of Rio de Janeiro. The children use the training rooms to learn fundamental computer and internet skills, which increases their level of literacy.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
The Orphaned Starfish Foundation has awarded a grant to ISEC’s Programa Abrigo, for the furnishings and operational expenses of three vocational training rooms in three of Programa Abrigo’’s homes.
We have also supplied a grant to ISEC’s Programa Abrigo for multimedia and educational training for the mentally and/or physically handicapped children. ISEC utilizes a “mainstreaming” approach in which the non-handicapped students work and socialize with the handicapped children.
The Centro Estudos e Ações Solidárias da Maré (CEASM) Program
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
CEASM was founded by the inhabitants of Mare to improve the poverty conditions through access to culture, technology, and other influences otherwise not available to local residents. In order to achieve their goal, they provide courses in foreign languages, computing, reading, photography, video, music, theater, capoeira, etc.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
The Orphaned Starfish Foundation has provided the resources and funding to acquire computers and install wiring in the computer room.
The Fundacao Americo de Viveiros Program
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Fundacao Americo de Viveiros is an organization that provides vocational training for children living in the Favela of Turano.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
The Orphaned Starfish Foundation has funded twelve computers, a printer, and a scanner for the Fundacao Americo de Viveiros’ existing computer room. OSF also provides funds on a continuing basis to supply children attending classes with a proper lunch.
The Centro de Ações Integradas Novo Horizonte Program
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Centro de Ações Integradas Novo Horizonte is the home of approximately ninety children ranging from infants to 14 year-olds. All the children receive schooling at the facility, and children ages 14 and older can be trained in silk printing techniques – from design to final product.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
The Orphaned Starfish Foundation has provided Centro de Ações Integradas Novo Horizonte computer equipment and classroom supplies. In addition, OSF provides ongoing funding for proper lunches for the children attending lessons at the facility.
The Proyecto Uerê Program
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Proyecto Uerê was founded ten years ago by Ms. Yvonne Bezerra de Mello. It is a nonprofit organization focused on teaching at risk children and youth living in a permanent state of conflict. The children at Proyecto Uere are traumatized by constant exposure to violence resulting in learning disabilities. Ms. Bezerra de Mello created the Uerê-Mello methodology, designed to help the children overcome their learning disabilities in order to increase the quality of their education. The project serves 430 children.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
OSF provides a grant to pay for a teacher’s salary.
The Hogar San Francisco Program
Santiago, Chile
Hogar San Francisco, founded in 1889, is a home for battered girls in the poorer outskirts of Santiago, Chile. The home is dedicated to providing shelter, guidance, and education for sexually abused girls ranging from ages 4 to 18 years old. The girls are placed at Hogar by either one of their parents or by a recommendation from the judicial system of Chile. The girls attend classes at community schools but return to the home for psychiatric treatment, meals and to sleep.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
We provided an initial grant to build the computer center. Additional funds were provided for computer hardware and software upgrades, teachers’ salaries, operational costs, programs, and internet access.
The Nuevas Oportunidades Program
San Rafeal Heredia, Costa Rica
The Nuevas Oportunidades project was created to provide computer training to children and young adults. Approximately 36 children and young adults from a shelter in the province of Heredia and a group of approximately 80 children from the “Los Angeles” school in San Rafael Heredia will be able to attend this program. Many of them come from dysfunctional families and have little or no access to higher education. The training will focus on enabling the children to find better paying opportunities after they leave the shelters.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
The Orphaned Starfish Foundation provided funds to furnish a computer center, and will continue to provide ongoing financial support.
The Orfanato Ninos de Cristo Program
La Romana, Dominican Republic
Orfanato Niños De Cristo was founded ten years ago by Sonia Hane, a native Dominican, who had been living in the United States for several years when she felt a strong call to return to her country to open a home devoted to abandoned, abused, or parentless children. The mission of the orphanage is to provide a safe home, family, and education to these children and to prepare them for adulthood. There are currently 124 children in the orphanage. Adoption in the Dominica Republic is extremely difficult because of past abuses of the system, therefore almost all of the children that come to the orphanage Niños De Cristo will stay until they are young adults and can find their way out into society.
In March of 2008, with the help of various donors, a vocational school building was completed with four classrooms. The primary challenge of today is to provide all the children with an opportunity to improve the overall quality of their education and especially to provide the older children with a vocation so they can leave the orphanage and start lives on their own.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
OSF has equipped the classrooms with approximately thirty new computers as well as pay a teacher’s salary on a continuing basis. The goals of the new vocational computer center are to introduce all the children to typing, computer usage, and standard computer skills, allowing them to use the computers for their schoolwork, connect to the world through the internet, and use these skills to qualify for gainful employment.
The Centro de Formación y Capacitación Cabarete Program
Puerto Plata, The Dominican Republic
In 2007, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Puerto Plata established a vocational training center in the township of Cabarete. The training center offers courses at no cost to children and youth, in various subject areas including information technology. These children are extremely poor and most of them suffer from physical disabilities. In addition to receiving vocational education and training, the participants experience increased self-esteem and benefit from moral and civic empowerment that helps keep them away from crime. To date, the center has benefited children who otherwise would have no access to computer training and jobs and facilitated job placement in the labor market and helped promote the self-development of these at-risk youth through basic vocational training and the use of information technology.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
OSF provided funds to furnish and equip the computer center located inside the Centro de Formación y Capacitación de Cabarete, as well as pay the salary for an IT instructor.
ECF and ECF Village
Addis Ababa and Aleltu, Ethiopia
ECF Village’s main feature is the school-based child safety net that comes with an integrated set of basic health, nutrition and education services, a model which has proven to be cost-effective and sustainable in the context of Ethiopia, a large African country with among the highest concentrations of poverty in Africa.
Since it began operations, eight classroom blocks and learning facilities have been constructed, complete with equipment, furniture and a health clinic. ECF Village has provided 10 years of schooling, health care and nutrition to 411 primarily orphans and poor children, and conducted HIV/AIDS awareness training among 15,000 community members. It has built a communal kitchen, a feeding center, a dairy farm, and developed seven hectares of cultivated land for producing grains and vegetables for the Child-Feeding Program. It has undertaken and promoted good agricultural practices. It has done this while conserving the environment, mainly the introduction of bio-gas energy, tree planting and environmental education activities.
Currently there are 411 children enrolled, between the ages of 4-17, with roughly equal gender equality. The classes range from Kindergarten to 10th grade. In collaboration with the local communities and authorities, which assist with the selection of beneficiary children, ECF has been enrolling approximately 35-40 children every year; their ages range from 4 to 6, and they usually join from kindergarten. Today, the first class of students have reached 10th grade in 2010 and they will take national examination for the completion of high school.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
OSF will provide funds to build a Technical and Vocational Training Center at the ECF Village. The center is expected to allow the children to learn computer and technical skill to help them obtain employment in areas like information communication technology, hospitality and tourism, construction, textile and sewing. In addition, OSF will also provide funds to pay the salary of two teachers.
The Asilo Primavera Program
México City, México
Asilo Primavera, established in 1908, focuses on providing shelter, housing, food, and education for more than 100 abandoned, impoverished, or parentless children, ages 6-18. Asilo Primavera’s goal is to integrate the children as responsible young adults into society by providing them with the necessary tools and support, such as school and regular computer classes.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
In 2002, The Orphaned Starfish foundation made a grant to Asilo Primavera to accelerate the learning process through regular computer classes. The grant was utilized to purchase additional computers and printers, software, 180 books for computer learning, and other support items. OSF’s support has already improved Asilo Primavera, with reports from the teachers showing increased computer awareness and an improvement in the students” ability to use computer hardware and software. In 2009, OSF provided funds to purchase ten new computers for the computer center. The foundation also pays the salary for a computer teacher on continuing basis.
The Ciudad de Los Niños Program
La Paz, Baja California, México
Ciudad de los Ninos, a foster home, provides a safe haven for 150 abused and abandoned children. These children usually suffer from low self-esteem due to physical and/or emotional abuse, and are in need of special care and acceptance. The foster home creates a family environment where values and good habits are stressed, and where the children can interact in a stable environment, fostering the development of their personalities. In addition, the Ciudad de los Ninos gives the children the opportunity to get an education and trade training allowing them to leave the home with the tools that will enable them to succeed.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
OSF provided funds to construct and furnish the computer room to help bolster the home’s education program.
The Kaambal Project
Yucatán, Mexico
The Kammbal Project is a computer school in Espita, Yucatan that supports more than 300 local children, as well as children from surrounding communities, by providing computer training lessons. The school began classes on September 9th, 2006 and due to its success additional night courses were added to meet the demand for the computers and equipment.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
The Orphaned Starfish Foundation provided funds and resources for building the infrastructure and purchasing of computer equipment. The foundation also funds salaries of teachers and maintenance of the facility.
The Ojos Que Sieinten Project
México City, México
Ojos Que Sienten, founded in August 2006, is an organization dedicated to integrating visually impaired individuals into society professionally, academically and socially. This program provides vocational training and support, as well as access to special software and hardware for computers, printers, and productivity tools. The center’s learning approach is heavily focused on the arts.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
The Orphaned Starfish Foundation provided the center with computers, special equipment and software for the visually impaired.
The Asilo Malambo Program
Orfelinato San Jose de Malambo, Panama
Founded in 1890, Asilo Malambo fosters children and young adults from all backgrounds but mostly orphans. Currently, Asilo Malambo cares for approximately 150 girls, including 30 HIV positive children, and serves a community of over four hundred people.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
The Orphaned Starfish Foundation funded the furnishing of a computer classroom with thirteen computers and peripherals, four printers, air-conditioning unit. We continue to provide internet connectivity on an annual basis.
The Hogar San Vicente de Paul Program
Colon, Panama
Founded in 1893, Hogar San Vicente de Paul (Compañía de las Hijas de la Caridad de San Vicente de Paul) provides care for 45 girls ranging in age from 6 to 16 by providing shelter, food, clothing, healthcare, and education. They come from backgrounds of severe violence and abuse, exposed to adult domestic violence, neglect and extreme poverty. Some of the girls are from rural areas without access to education and some have lost their parents to prison. The girls suffer from depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, lack of concentration, and as a result have low academic performance. Some of the girls even suffer from malnutrition, learning or physical disabilities. The orphanage is dedicated to improving the physical and emotional well being of the abandoned children living in the home and is committed to improving the quality of their education by providing access to information and communication technologies.
How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps
OSF provided the funds to furnish and equip a computer center located inside Hogar San Vicente de Paul, and continues to pay the salary for an IT instructor.