CONEXION - Creating a Sense of Community

Hello dear friends,

As you well know, CONEXION is a project that Fundacion Calicanto created in order to follow up with our beneficiaries and provide additional training and tools for all members of the Calicanto community.

As I mentioned in the last report, we would be starting our first CONEXION program with the very first “Parent’s Club” in this community. The parent’s club will provide workshops for parents focusing on parental responsibility, self-esteem, a values-based education, and discipline, among other topics needed by this community. The training workshops for parents will be held monthly and our goal is to improve parent-child relationships and make parents aware of their children’s needs.

On May 8, we will also begin our usual English and Computer clubs, which target the CAPTA women who have graduated from our courses. They will receive as usual, basic English courses focused on hospitality terminology and basic computer use courses. 

I would also like to mention that Mother's day is around the corner, and you can help us raise more funds for this project or other Fundacion Calicanto projects (CAPTA, ENLACES or RESTAURA) by purchasing a tribute card for your mother and celebrating this joyous day with Fundacion Calicanto. 

Do something different this year, and show your mother just how much you love her with a tribute card. 

www.globalgiving.org/projects/conexion

2012 marked 15 years of successful community work with Fundacion Calicanto. Our end of year celebration for these 15 years was shared with volunteers, beneficiaries and personnel who all shared with us one night of food, prizes and music!

The end of year celebration counted with over 70 guests including the first CAPTA participants who are now sharing stories about their jobs and the houses they are buying. ENLACES parents shared stories about their children growth in the program. And the ENLACES children sneaked in to celebrate too! 

Fundacion Calicanto’s president Hildegard Vasquez thanked everyone present and gave away appreciation tokens to our volunteers and partners. 

We have big goals for 2013! We want to make the CONEXION project grow and reach more individuals.

For example we will now offer a school for parents so that ENLACES parents also get the training and support they need to escape poverty. We will offer them parent training, conflict management, communication skills, English and basic computer courses. 

We are looking forward to this project and will be in touch with all the fun updates and accomplishments!

We thank you for your support and ask that you keep contributing so that you can help us make all this possible. 

Happy New Year!!