What's New
What has ECHO been up to?
Posted December 9, 2010
Check out all the great things your donations have helped to support!
Rescate de Calle
Rescate de Calle (Street Outreach) is CENIT's biggest volunteer program and provides educational and recreational activities for poor families and working children in the Santa María, Mayorista, and Camal markets. Funds from ECHO help provide supplies like paints, craft materials, toothpaste and brushes, and books and games for Rescate’s preschool outreach programs.
Escuela ESTAR
ESTAR is CENIT's compensatory primary school, allowing children who have fallen significantly behind in school or dropped out due to economic hardship to catch up and some day enter a normal high school. ECHO's "Adopt-a-Classroom" project allows a donor to sponsor a specific ESTAR class, providing funds for the teacher's salary, school lunches, books and supplies, and registration.
CENIT Cafeteria
All school year, the CENIT cafeteria provides a wholesome lunch for over 300 poor children who do not get adequate nutrition at home. Recent cuts in government funding have reduced funding for CENIT's lunch program, making it difficult for the school to provide healthy lunches that include fruits and vegetables, but ECHO's support allows the cafeteria to continue providing healthy meals for students.
Adopt-a-Dream
This sponsorship program matches sponsor parents from all over the world with bright but extremely poor children who would otherwise not be able to attend school. ECHO not only provides a cost effective way for padrinos and madrinas to send monthly donations to their sponsor children, but also helps pay the Adopt-a-Dream social worker's salary.
Computer Lab
In the past, only one computer in CENIT was available for use by CENIT students. This year, with a combination of financial donations and in-kind donations of used laptops, ECHO established a brand-new computer lab for the CENIT elementary and high school students. Students will now receive instruction in the basics of computer use, as well as having a free period in which to practice on the computers and do homework and research!