Together to do more
Text RAQUEL VIDALES Photo THINKSTOCK
A home, food, care and protection for 50 children who have lost their parents in the Argentine city of Mar del Plata. Three shelter homes for 21 children at risk of social exclusion in João Pessoa (Brazil). And three training and entrepreneurship programs for 114 youngsters aged 15 18 in three towns in Honduras. These are the latest fruits of the alliance forged between Fundación MAPFRE and SOS Children’s Villages to help disadvantaged children in any corner of the world.
In each case, the objective goes beyond providing the children with food and shelter. Because children need much more than that for their development: they need care, personalized attention and, above all, a family environment where they can feel protected and loved. The children in Mar del Plata, for example, grow up accompanied by qualified caregivers who assume direct responsibility for their well-being, not just material, but also emotional and social. And the shelter homes in Brazil were designed from the outset as true homes, with no more than seven children in each one, so that they may develop as they would if they lived with a family.
Through its support for these programs, Fundación MAPFRE is broadening the scope of its drive to help disadvantaged children in different parts of the world, in partnership with organizations such as SOS Children’s Villages, with which it has worked closely for years to multiply the effectiveness of each endeavor.