• Feria Libre, South America
• Ithemba, South Africa

Feria Libre
Childrens' lives On the Feria Libre fair in Cuenca, Ecuador, many people lead a life below the poverty line. Children lack the possibility to get access to appropriate education and food.Families only have one meal per day. People cook a soup over the open fire in the evening. Children are undernourished from birth and therefore cannotdevelop their learning capabilities appropriately. Besides this, there is nobody to look after the children and cater to their needs. All the life circumstances (incl. lack of food, education and care) lead to thechildrens' insufficient development of mental, physical and social skills.

The project
The project has been on the streets since 1994 and is being implemented by responsible and motivated young Ecuadorians. Supporting children and their families who live under miserable conditions is the objective.Different measures aim to boost their training and development while trying to defend against the threat of disability.The project is located on the Feria Libre fair in Cuenca.

The concept
In order to support children in their special situation at the fair, measures in different areas were taken. All of these measures are aimed at improving the children's physical, mental and social development. All of the offers are voluntary.

Please refer to www.ferialibre.de for further information.

Many disabled children live in the townships of South Africa. There are no official statistics detailing the exact number. Only a very small number of children ever gets the chance for institutional support. The Township of Port Elizabeth houses a school where 44 children with mental disabilities are looked after. The name of the school is "Ithemba", which means "Hope". The school is not recognised as such by the State of South Africa.
Ithemba is operated with a very low budget. Many of the children's parents do not have an income to feed the children or pay for their education.Two meals per day and hygienic education are at the core of the daily programme. The climate at the school is excellent due to the great contribution of the tutors, who receive little for their ceaseless engagement in favour of those in need.
South Africa is a country with a small number of specially trained professionals whose salaries could not be paid by Ithemba. In order to prepare personnel for their work in Ithemba, internal training programmes were conducted. Nevertheless, there is not enough personnel in Ithemba although some of the former students are fulfilling their job as "helpers". Teaching cultural techniques and providing essential education for important tasks in life is therefore difficult.

The following points summarise essential milestones for the future of theproject:

• Maintenance and improvement of the good relationship with Ithemba
• Intensive preparation and training of exchange students
• Analysis of new research used in order to build long-term projects
• Improvement of future perspectives for Ithemba students by understanding their wants and needs while supporting their abilities
• The search for more long term financing possibilities
• Rasing public awareness for the problems of disabled children in the townships of South Africa
  

Please refer to www.ithemba.gmxhome.de for further information.