Sendas ODV ©
C.F.: 97943350153
RUNTS n.: 108962
ABOUT US
We are a non-profit international cooperation agency and a voluntary organisation (ODV)
We believe that giving is always valuable, yet all too often only one part gives and the other receives. This loses great potential for growth and establishes a relationship in which one party is 'strong' and the other 'weak'.
We believe that both parties should be able to give and receive in order to create a new future that allows everyone to grow and flourish.
This is why our project focuses not only on 'taking there' and 'doing there', but also on 'bringing here', creating a bridge that will make the future flourish on both sides.
SENDAS differs from most projects in that it involves a return to the 'rich' country. We believe that South America and its young people can offer a great deal and broaden the horizons of our young people, who all too often find themselves becoming emotionally fragile and insecure due to the 'virtual life' in which they are inevitably immersed. We offer a view of life made up of possibilities, different perspectives, stories of building a different future, and the generative force of life.
WHY WAS SENDAS CREATED?
SENDAS was born when two friends, who ran youth centres in Milan (Italy) and Medellin (Colombia), were discussing the situation of young people in their respective countries and came up with the idea of creating a partnership that would benefit both Italy and Colombia.
THE SITUATION IN COLOMBIA
In the Medellin region (Antioquia, Colombia), children who are able to attend school finish classes at 2 p.m. and then have nothing to do in the afternoon, so they end up “hanging around” (in the best case scenario), while children who cannot go to school because they live too far from any town – and they are the majority – work in the fields with their parents but have no place to meet or gather except the town square (where there is one).
For basic education, there is a teacher who manages to visit the villages only one week a month to teach all the children in the village. Although most of the time there is not even a building in which to hold classes, the children gather under a tree that provides shade or under a makeshift shelter. In Colombia, the school dropout rate is very high and there are rural areas completely lacking in schools and community centres, where poverty therefore prevails.
Better education would mean better prospects for the future (learning a trade other than farming, a sport, etc.) and having a meeting place run by an educator (the equivalent of our oratories, which do not exist in Colombia) would mean offering new opportunities for growth to young people and everyone in the village and the surrounding area.
THE SITUATION IN ITALY
In Milan (Italy), young people are very busy with a thousand school and extracurricular activities.
They generally live in comfortable circumstances. But this very habit of having things without much effort lulls them into a kind of slumber, emptying them of their ‘hunger’ for life and dreams.
Therefore, an experiential meeting with those who have little, yet are happy nonetheless, would help the young people of Milan rediscover the joy of living, appreciate what they have and recognise it as a gift, and base their lives on what is essential and enduring.
THE SOLUTION LIES IN MUTUAL ENRICHMENT, IN AN EXCHANGE THAT CREATES LIFE.
BY CREATING A UNION BETWEEN ITALY AND COLOMBIA.
HOW
As for Colombia, we are creating youth and community centres that can be used as schools in the morning, youth centres (similar to oratories) in the afternoon, and places for the whole village or local community to meet and share experiences (conferences, evening classes, sports, learning trades, etc.) in the evening or at other times.
However, the structure alone is not sufficient to educate; it must be inhabited by an educator. To do so, we train these educators (through experiential trips, face-to-face and online courses) and support them with board and lodging.
As for Italy, we offer young people the opportunity to travel to Colombia, where they can volunteer, encounter a new culture, meet different people and young people of their own age from another country, thereby enriching themselves and broadening their outlook on life.
By offering online Italian and Spanish lessons, which are actually lessons on Italian and Spanish culture taught by volunteer teachers and the young people themselves.
By implementing forms of collaboration on joint projects (such as summer camps, etc.).
WHY SENDAS
SENDAS, in Spanish, means PATH, ITINERARY, JOURNEY.
In fact, we offer and support new educational and human paths, new itineraries of life and exchange that give young people the opportunity to escape poverty (both economic and human) and to have broader horizons for their future.
This happens through schools (which are places for educational, emotional, and human development) and youth centres (like oratories, which are informal places for growth and exchange).
Sendas ODV ©
C.F.: 97943350153
RUNTS n.: 108962