OUR PROJECT HOGAR CAMPO

The German-Chilean organization Juntos e.V.  - a brief history

1988 – Beatrix Loos, coming from Kaiserslautern, Germany, worked in the slums of Santiago during a summer voluntary service. She discovered the poverty of children, who can easily fall into begging or violence in the slums when they feel abandoned. She developed the idea of a Hogar Campo, a children’s home associated with a farm in the country. Her idea was supported by a youth worker of Santiago, Jessica Alcaino, 25, who came with the desire of changing the traditional structure of children’s home. The organization “Juntos e.V.” ("juntos" means "together" in Spanish) was created on November, 1st, in Germany (in Dansenberg) in order to support and finance the project.

In 1989, we bought a plot of land in San Pedro (120km in the north of Santiago) in the purpose of guarding against the rural depopulation. Young people from Santiago helped in the clearing of the land that was full of hawthorns, which are typical trees of this region and are called Los Espinos.We built the home “Los Espinos” to accommodate 20 children that would otherwise give up soon going to school because they have to start earning money to support their family.

One of the principal aims of our project is to educate these children in a family-like ambiance, to permit them being graduated from school and to support them in their professional formation and their job-hunting. They take part in the housework and the agricultural tasks. We are also carrying out projects with the young people of the village of San Pedro in order to encourage them to have wise leisure activities.

1990-1991 – Construction of two half-timbered buildings: for common rooms, and for dormitories and bathrooms. Installation of a well and a sewage plant on the parcel. The children’s home was opened on December, 14 in 1991. Donations of the previous years permitted the construction of the home, a well and a sewage plant. Then, the farming grew up over the years with fruit trees, a vegetable garden, greenhouses and animal husbandry to contribute to the feeding of the children.

2000-2003 – Construction of new concrete bathrooms and thereby recovery of four new bedrooms.

In 2001, following a national school reform, we decided to add a school (with kindergarden and the first 8 classes) to the home to offer other children of poor families the possibility of an education close to their homes. The state subsidizes 70% of the  teachers’ salaries and the lunch costs for the pupils.. There are classes on the mornings. After lunch, the pupils can develop their creativity by taking part in various workshops. About 40 pupils are attending the school.

2004-2008 – We decided to expand further and add a third pillar to our home and school: Juntos created a centre for children and young people of poor families of San Pedro and Quillota. Families are given a psychosocial accompaniment and children and young people can attend social and educational workshops.

In 2009, we purchased water rights on the parcel. This assures us a sufficient quantity of water for the farming, even during the dry season. Therefore, we do not need to set aside half of the parcel in the summertime and we can regularly provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the children of the school and home and sell a part of them on the local market.

Every year, two solidarity marches are organized at the same time in Germany (in Kaiserslautern) and in Chile (in San Pedro). These are traditional actions aiming at raising money to cover a great part of the current needs of the home. Moreover, this money is often used to finance a specific project. For example, the money collected thanks to the 2010 march permitted the extension of the school with a special room for the pottery workshop.

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