Education
CGSGI is supporting Fundación Pies Descalzos schools in Colombia by providing 4,000 students with two meals a day for 180 days a year.
Colombia’s protracted internal conflict has displaced many families and, as a result, thousands of vulnerable children and young adults lack access to quality education, nutrition, and economic opportunities. CGSGI has partnered with Shakira’s Fundación Pies Descalzos (Barefoot Foundation) for a two-year commitment to enable the schools to become true community development centers for the local population.
Fundación Pies Descalzos has been working to combat this problem through its Pies Descalzos schools. The schools complement normal services offered at public schools, with an integral approach to well-being that includes nutrition programs, counseling services, self-esteem building, additional teacher training, vocational training, and income generation assistance. These services help bring education to the broader community, and compensate for challenges that complicate regular school attendance and learning.
CGSGI funding and expertise allows Pies Descalzos to deepen the depth and breadth of their services in two ways:
- The nutrition program allows 4,000 primary school students to receive two meals a day for 180 days a year that will reduce malnutrition from 32 percent to 22 percent by 2010 among students in the schools.
- Secondary school students receiving training will be able to develop business plans and participate in the income generation component. This vocational training program will reduce the number of youth without vocational training from 84 percent to 53 percent.
