Estella Borgoño

Estella Borgoño (name changed) is 14 years old and is enrolled in CENIT's Adopt-a-Dream program, as well as being a student in ESTAR, CENIT's primary school. Estella was forced to leave school when she was eight to supplement her family's meagre income. She was selling fruit and candy in the streets of the Santa Maria neighbourhood. Estella spent nearly three years working up to 14 hours a day in these dangerous and polluted streets. Luckily, one of our street outreach volunteers working in the area befriended her and enrolled her in Adopt-a-Dream. She was paired with a godparent in the United States who pays for Estella's school costs, medical and dental care, and monthly groceries for her and her family. Estella was also enrolled in CENIT's Nivelaciones program, which is designed for children who have missed substantial amounts of school, to help them catch up to their appropriate grade level. Today, Estella is a full-time student in good standing at CENIT and will start her first year of high school next year. She no longer works in the streets and dreams of graduating and owning a store or working in a beauty salon one day.

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Mi Fami (Programs for Parents)

CENIT cannot provide a fully rounded resource base without also providing support to the parents of CENIT children. Mi Fami holds required monthly courses on pertinent issues for families such as family planning, hygiene, mental health, and parenting techniques, such as alternative forms of discipline, relationship-building, and communication skills. Weekly courses are also offered in the areas of literacy, bread-making, beauty salon skills, jewelry-making and painting. The objective of these courses is to provide the parents with new skills to diversify their employment opportunities as well as to foster a social support group for women who otherwise do not have such an outlet. All mothers (and in some cases fathers) participate in this program. As a compensation for participation, CENIT rewards the parents with a "staples" basket, which contains rice, lentils and other foodstuffs.

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