Colombia: Acra Mundial
Equipment for the creative education of children and young people of Acra Mundial
The Arca Mundial welcomes the dreams of children, teenagers and adults with a heart full of love. Here, a colourful world should be offered to everyone. Therefore, the organization wants to give more life and colour to its premises, which are mostly in shell construction. Many rooms need a new coat of paint and new doors as well as new furniture and some love: blackboards for learning, cloths for playing and feeling good and comfortable chairs and tables for being productive and creative. Also, new areas will be created to be able to help even more people. All pf this should happen this year.
For the renovation and improvement work, Arca Mundial needs a total of about 8,000 euros.
“Your donations enable us to carry out this work more easily and with less worry, as well as to create a generally more beautiful and pleasant workplace for students and teachers. Our desire is to be able to accommodate more and more children, adolescents and adults, to expand our support and to offer this place of safety and acceptance to even more people.“
About the project:
Arca Mundial is an institution based on the principles of Waldorf education, curative education and social therapy to support children, adolescents and adults with disabilities. Through educational, therapeutic, handicraft, artistic activities and workshops, as well as health services, Arca Mundial helps its students in their development and rehabilitation. Currently, the facility is attended by 69 students. Arca Mundial has 25 employees, including 17 therapists, five administrative staff and three general services staff.
The facility was founded in 1997 and is currently attended by 69 toddlers, children, adolescents and young adults between the ages of 1.5 and 28 from Monday to Friday. Here they learn to weave, bake and carpenter. There are currently six groups, each with about ten students. In addition to the two children's groups, there are two adult groups, a teen group and a carpentry group. Here, at Arca Mundial, encounters take place and a bridge is built between the people here and the society in which children and young people with special needs often experience rejection. With various creative, playful and movement-focused offers, the respective individual strengths of the children and teenagers are identified. The aim is to start with the strengths and to use them to face challenging situations in an easier and better way.
Here it plays a very important role that employees and visitors meet on an equal footing and create an encouraging space for exchange, trust, development and security. But also for conflict situations, to learn to face them openly in order to work out solutions together. A togetherness where everyone feels equally visible, heard and valued.
In addition to the learning opportunities, there are many celebration opportunities in the Fundacíon Arca Mundial. The festivities do not only show special moments in the flow of daily life, but also the great commitment of the employees. They often prepare birthday parties and other celebrations in their spare time, because it is important to them that. In addition to school or professional training, the students experience an environment in which their value as a person is recognized.
When the Colombian authorities decided to close the schools for people with disabilities and to integrate them into the general schools in 1997, a group of friends around the couple Juan Guillermo Restrepo Florez and Sandra Domínguez, decided to open a day care center for children, adolescents and adults with various disabilities. As schools often refused to provide special educational services, this project was created to close the gap and provide training to those who did not find a good educational service elsewhere. With the support of a foundation founded in 2000 and the Friends of Waldorf Education, it was possible to buy in a property in 2002.
Today, the building includes classrooms, a carpentry workshop, a weaving mill, a bakery, a kitchen and a courtyard. Every day, people from all income levels visit the Fundación Arca Mundial, but only a few of them can raise the full monthly contribution of about 130 euros, so that the continued existence of the Fundación Arca Mundial can only be secured by donations. The Colombian government supports the project, but does not provide any financial support.
Despite the great difficulties, the conviction and dedication of the team members are unbroken and they always plan the expansion and improvement of the facility to be independent sometime in the future.