Recently, Rolando Padilla, 16, was met with standing ovation as part of the theatre group that performed The Wizard of Oz at Teatro Manuel Bonilla, the most important cultural center in Honduras.
Bu,t before 2008, Padilla was living in the Villafranca neighborhood, some miles west of Honduras?s capital, Tegucigalpa. Villafranca is notorious for its infiltration by several gangs, such as Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Mara 18.
In 2008, Padilla joined the Comprehensive Pilot Program to Combat Urban Poverty (PPICPU). Run by the Ministry of Finance and a part of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (ERP), this program employs art as a tool for social inclusion, for building children?s self-esteem, and for encouraging family involvement.
One of PPICPU?s main objectives was to provide a creative platform for poor children so that they could stay off the streets and not get involved in gang activities. Today, children like Padilla take classes in various art forms in addition to regular school education.
At least 61.9% of Honduras?s 8.2 million people live under the poverty line. Poor children often wash car windows and do odd jobs to be able to buy food. But PPICPU?s efforts have brought such children together to experience respectable creative lives and dream of professions instead of foraging for basic nourishment.
The PPICPU organizes its activities around age groups:
- Children between one and six years of age benefit from early learning services, nutritional services, school materials, and meals under the Comprehensive Care Pilot Program. The program takes 150 children each year.
- Children between seven and 14 years of age learn dance, music, visual arts, and theater. They also get meals, computer classes, and psychological care. This Complementary Cultural Care Pilot Program serves 350 children each year.
- Children between 14 and 18 years have access to lessons in dressmaking, cosmetology, carpentry, electricity, mechanics, refrigeration, and baking. This Technical Training Pilot Program serves 200 children each year.
Working on an annual budget of US $414,500, the PPICPU has progressed from taking children off the streets into an initiative to cultivate and train professional artists.
Jacqueline Duarte, the general coordinator of PPICPU, says the results of the initiative are obvious: 80% of students between seven and 14 years of age gain admission to the National Academy of Music, the National Academy of Dance, and the National Academy of Theater, while 60% of students excel in their performances in regular school.
Ronaldo Padilla is one such star theater student among the many successfully?groomed?by the PPICPU.
-?Mantra Roy
Source: http://www.openequalfree.org/at-risk-youth-in-honduras-get-education-arts-and-entertainment/18983
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