We’ve hit our target!
Thanks so much for all your generosity – we have now raised £60,000, making the most of the £30,000 match funding we had available!
You can still give – every penny will help further the work of Casa Club in Guatemala – but your donations will no longer be doubled.
Learning to dream
In Santa Faz, children don’t know how to dream. They can’t even imagine life outside their violent slum, which sprawls down a steep hillside, where mothers tell them not to play outside because they might be shot.
In the grip of gangs, poverty and fear, the wider world might as well be another planet. Yet at the Casa Club, in the heart of Santa Faz, children play in safety and are helped with homework. They also, wonderfully, learn how to dream.
They glimpse life outside this slum on the edge of Guatemala City. They meet positive adults who care for them, mentor them, teach them and encourage them to believe. Because if you can’t dream, if you don’t believe, you can’t escape.
We’re not selling a Disney fantasy – this year, for the first time, one of the street-connected young people supported by our partners went off to university.
It was a milestone moment, not just for this young student, but for the entire project. For 12 years, the SKD Guatemala team have stood alongside vulnerable children at high risk of street and gang life, mentoring and encouraging. Now they are seeing lasting fruit in young lives transformed.
It was an aspirational moment for everyone. Now the younger children watching know they too can hope – and work – for a better future.
It’s time to expand the Casa Club
This Christmas, we want to raise £60,000 to expand the Casa Club, to rent and renovate a bigger building, so we can help more children. Thanks to generous donors, we had £30,000 in match funding – which meant every donation was doubled until we reached our target of £60,000. Any donations above this will still make a huge difference for children in Santa Faz, but they won’t be doubled.
Why does Casa Club need more space?
The Casa Club is a satellite of El Centro – a larger programme run by our partners in La Terminal, a different slum. Children from Santa Faz can’t access El Centro because it’s too dangerous for them to travel in and out of the area, so the Casa Club was started in a small garage-like shop unit around three years ago.
Across the road is a municipal sports pitch, with good football and basketball facilities – but most parents are too scared to let their children play there due to the dangers of drug and gang activity.
But under the supervision of the Casa Club team, children can play in safety, running, skipping, playing sports. Inside the Club they do homework, enjoy crafts, play games. It’s a wonderful opportunity for children who live very restricted lives.
However, the facilities at Casa Club are limited. A single toilet is shared with other businesses in the unit – which makes safeguarding difficult to manage. We can only have children in limited numbers and must rota different groups on different days – in contrast to El Centro, where children attend every day.
We have a waiting list of children desperate for a place, but we just can’t fit them in.
Waiting for a place…
*Jacob’s dad died nine years ago, when his sister was a baby and his mum was only 20 years old.
In the past, Jacob, aged 13, has done well at school, but now his grades are slipping. He is easily distracted. His mum is worried.
He goes to church with his little sister, even though his mum doesn’t attend, after a local pastor got to know the family. The pastor referred both Jacob and his sister to the Casa Club – they are both on the waiting list for a place.
It’s important for Jacob to get a place soon. In Santa Faz it’s too easy for disaffected young boys to drift into trouble. The kind of trouble you never escape.
*Jacob’s dad died nine years ago, when his sister was a baby and his mum was only 20 years old.Creating capacity for more vulnerable children
Our plan is to stay in the same location, but occupy the entire three-floor building, including the apartment upstairs. This will give the children access to secure toilets, and a kitchen, alongside classroom and activity space. We’ll be able to offer more activities, to more children, more regularly.
Our partners’ outreach team wants to connect with at least 100 at-risk children over the next 12 months, with at least 75 of these attending the centre for a minimum of four days a week. They also want to offer parenting support and workshops to at least 60 families, as they know that improving home stability is another important factor in helping children succeed.
“To be poor is not just about lack of money,” says Frank, the director of SKD Guatemala. “The hardest thing for a child to overcome is not knowing how to dream of a better future. That mentality is so hard to change. But we can help them do this, to dream of a wonderful life, a better job, a brighter future. This is what can motivate them through the darkest moments.”I want to help