CASA CODENI

Every day Casa CODENI is filled with children and adolescents. Our goal is to provide a dignified and safe environment for them to participate in educational and recreational activities and other workshops. By doing this we hope that they will consider Casa CODENI as their own home.

Unfortunately the house currently needs many repairs that our out of our budget’s reach. The roof has leaks, the classrooms and offices need to be painted, the walls need repairs due to humidity filtration. We also need to rewire the building to reduce our monthly electric bill and replace several locks to improve the security of our human and material resources.

We are seeking donations to take care of these urgent maintenance needs. Every donation, no matter how small it may seem, is a significant contribution to make Casa CODENI feel like home for the children, adolescents and families who take advantage of our activities to better their lives and overcome their dependence on the streets.

Arely Rocha: Fundraising Coordinator

Child laborers

For a lot of people de concept of “Kids in street situations or child laborers” is unfamiliar. However, according to the publication "Breaking cycles of poverty with educational interventions: the Case of CODENI" by Danielle Strickland (2010), the last census that DIF Jalisco published in February of 2008 reported 3,674 minors working in the public street in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara. These children and adolescents can be seen all over downtown, selling what they call “seasonal products”, working as magicians, selling potato chips and candies, sometimes alone and sometimes with relatives. A significant group of child laborers arrives every day from the highly marginalized peripheral neighborhoods of Guadalajara, returning to their shanty homes only to sleep at night.

It is important to mention that the children and adolescents that are considered to be “in street situations” are those who live in poverty and forced to the streets for survival. This concept refers to a wide range of children and teenagers, including those who accompany their parents to work as informal vendors in the streets to those who sleep in public spaces.

The working children and adolescents that participate in CODENI generally accompany their relatives. They generally work to help the family economy or help sell in the streets while their parents do other activities. From a very young age they have autonomy and freedom, including economic activity and the capacity to move freely in the city streets. That said, these children live with their families and usually attend school. The common characteristic of CODENI´s families is the lack of formal jobs and stable income.

The children and adolescents who participate in CODENI do not perceive themselves as vulnerable or recognize rights violations in their lives. Life on the streets is the norm for these families and they have not experienced other ways of life. They perceive their lives as normal and do not believe that the necessity to work as children is a rights violation. Many consider themselves to be “middle class,” since they are better off than those living on the streets. However, CODENI strives to broaden their perspective and consider a more stable future, with formal employment off the streets.

The benefit of working on the streets is the lack of structure in their work day and access to easy money, as the work requires no application process or requisites. This means that they can count with economical fluency, with a daily cash income that allows them to purchase goods and go to the arcade, for example. The sensation of having cash in their pockets makes street work attractive to these children and families and often inhibits them from seeing the benefits of working to obtain formal employment with legal benefits and a stable income.

Despite the economic benefit of working on the streets, children and teens in street situations are victims of many rights violations and are constantly exposed to risks such as drug trafficking, sexual exploitation and discrimination. We must remain conscious of the rights violations that street children and youth suffer as they are indeed the present and our hope for a brighter future for Mexico.

By: María Luisa Romero Rodríguez, CODENI “Workshops coordinator”

Teen Life Projects

In Codeni we are proud to have an ever-growing group of teenagers and youth that are willing to continue with individual projects and goals, with the tools and skills they have been developing with us throughout their childhoods. These projects are focused in social as well as educational areas of each individual’s life.
Youth in street situations are exposed to multiple risks during adolescence, due largely to the context of poverty in which they live. The areas in which they grow up are permeated by violence, gangs, and a high rate of narcotic sales and consumption. They further tend to lack the presence of law enforcement figures and social development programs.

CODENI’s new program called "Life Projects" was initiated to build on workshops of rights and responsibilities. Our team of educators serves as a support structure to empower our teens along the paths they have planned to leave the streets.
Thus we are proposing a new journey with our youth in which we will accompany them as they plan projects and recognize the resources available to each of them to achieve their goals. We are optimistic that our youth will be successful in their "Life Projects," as they are already armed with knowledge and skills from the many formative and preventive workshops in which they have participated in CODENI.
Congratulations to our teens for beginning this new stage with us and for their initiative to continue growing with CODENI!

Myriam Godínez, psychologist

Ahala in the Rotary district 7570 Newsletter!!!!

For more information and the complete Newsletter, please visit: http://www.rotary7570.org/

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My experience as a volunteer in CODENI: Samaria Alonso Orozco

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a strong believer in God, and I attribute my estancia in CODENI to him. After all, life leads us where we need to be.

I entered college by chance. When I decided to apply it was already April and there were not many options left. “I fell” into the ITESO. In the first days, I attended a presentation of different options where students could volunteer through the ITESO. I thought maybe I’d find something there that interested me or that I could find a way to go to the Sierra Tarahumara, something that has always been a dream of mine. A trip to the Sierra was not meant to happen at this point in my life. I watched the presentations of different volunteer opportunities, but none called my attention, until I saw one that was focused on education (something I’m passionate about): it was CODENI.

At first, I was really scared, because I didn’t know how the children would respond to me. I didn’t know if they’d like me. But we can’t be guided by fear and need to approach new experiences with a smile.

Nine months have passed, and since then, I’ve enjoyed CODENI one Monday after the next. If it were possible, I’d write several pages about my experiences with the kids in Casa CODENI, my random encounters with them in the nearby park, their heart-warming smiles, and when they share stories about their daily lives, some of which break my heart and others that leave me cracking up.

How could I ever forget their little faces? (At the moment I’m imagining them) Perhaps I forget their names at times, or I mix one of them up with another, but seriously, I really care about them now, more than I can express in words.

“Maira, maira!” how sweet it sounds coming from them. And the thing is that it’s not just about going to help them with their homework, or the workshops, or to play with them. For me it has turned into an experience of growing together. I feel like a part of their lives y they are a part of mine.

When I speak about them, a smile automatically appears on my face; whatever may be bothering me on a given Monday, is immediately forgotten when I’m with them. I know that for the time being, I couldn’t imagine my life without CODENI.

Samaria Alonso Orozco

2nd Semester student in International Relations at the ITESO University

Volunteer in Círculo CODENI

Celebrating our moms in CODENI

Celebrating our moms in CODENI

On Saturday, May 14th, we celebrated Mother’s Day with a delicious cookout in the Metropolitan Park.

Congratulations to our moms!

Reading Workshop begins in CODENI

On Friday May 13, 2011, in the area of Academic Support, we began a new reading workshop. In CODENI we recognize strong reading skills as a fundamental ability for the development of our children and adolescents.

The workshop is organized between our volunteer Samaria Alonso and the coordinator of the area of education, Martín López Espíritu. The objective of the workshop is to promote the love of reading and simultaneously improve comprehension, fluidity and speed reading. To accomplish this objective, each participant in the workshop selects books from our library that he or she wants to read.

The participants were enthusiastic and chose stories such as “Snow White” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” which they took home to read and share with their families and shared the stories with the group in the following workshop.

The workshop includes different activities such as story-telling, stories with pictures and group reading dynamics, with the intention of drawing our children and adolescents to the library and transforming the activity of reading from an responsibility to a pleasure.

Psic. Martín López Espíritu

Coordinator de Education