Fundaćion Junto con los Niños / Together with the children Foundation
Although JUCONI Mexico and JUCONI Ecuador are independent organizations, we work together closely on matters such as: joint project implementation, reciprocal training to help us identify the most effective project-management practices, exchanges for field staff to give them more hands-on experience of different areas, joint international advocacy to press for the implementation of children’s rights.
Mission:
The Junto Con Los Niños (Together with Children) JUCONI Foundation was set up in 1995 as a non-profit Ecuadorian organization, with the aim of providing specialized services for children and adolescents working on the streets, as well as those identified as being at high risk of taking up streetwork.
OUR MISSION is to assist all street-working children, and those at high risk, to find solutions for meeting their needs, in a way that ensures their total healthy development, and allows them to exercise their rights in accordance with the framework of the Convention of the Rights of Childhood.
Who do we serve?
The children on JUCONI´s program work on the streets to contribute to the household income and return home to their families living in highly dangerous and deprived shanty towns around the city. These communities are in marginal-urban areas (south and the northwest of the Guayaquil city) lack elemental services, such as paved roads, drinking water, plumbing for sewage, waste collection or legal and safe electricity supply.
They have poor hygiene and nutrition along with absence of free health services means that children suffer from curable skin sores, parasites, respiratory and stomach complaints. Additionally, these communities are lawless places with rising levels of abuse.
Aims:
* To provide street-working children with the vital skills necessary for creating solutions to their problems, in a context that ensures their healthy development so that they are able to exercise their rights.
* To develop families and active communities that respect and strive to provide for the rights of children and adolescents.
* To share skills and experiences with other organizations, both public and private, providing services for children, with the aim of building and strengthening capabilities for working effectively with those who are exposed to the problems of the streets and other socially excluded children.
In order to achieve its mission, JUCONI relies on a team of professionals, predominantly psychologists, family therapists, social workers and specialists in child care. In addition, local and foreign volunteers work with us every year.
(information from the JUCONI website)
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This blog reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
