The program “Manitos Creciend y Aprendiendo Felices” is part of CANAT (Support Center for Working Teenagers and Children). Its purpose is to offer a complete educative process for the personal and professional development of working teenagers, which will allow them to better their living and working conditions.

Target Populations

Manitos works with working teenagers that live in the outskirts of Piura, that do not have access to higher education, o that have dropped out of school for economic reasons. Most of these teenagers work in their home, in a shop, have their own micro businesses selling various items such as soft drinks on the market or in their neighborhood, washing cars, etc...

Manitos caters to teenagers between 14 and 18, with little or no economic resources, living in the poorer towns around Piura, such as Castilla, la Legua, Simbila, or Catacaos.

Objectives

 The program develops the teenagers’ capacities and abilities thanks to an alternative education which enables them to acquire technical skills for a job, and to develop their personalities in a positive and civic way. It also helps the teenagers grow into healthy and well balanced men and women thanks to a mix of private attention and collective action that allows them to define themselves both as an individual and as part of a community, and to empower them to play their part in their community, and to know their civil rights and responsibilities.

Work Areas

1. Technical Area: the students are given practical training for the acquisition of all skills required for 4 different types of jobs, as well as complementary lessons for those who need them, and entrepreneurial classes. This empowers them to be able to compete when comes the time to find a dignifying job, or to create their own small business.

 The teenagers that Manitos works with do not have any other ambition in life than to survive on a day-to-day basis, as they do not receive sufficient support, and do not believe themselves to be able to do anything more, given many of them have dropped out of school and do not have access to higher education. Many of these children are victims of violence and treated badly within their own families, as they do not know their own rights and their place in society; they badly need to express their feelings, and to be listened to.

2. Social Area: The students need a form of education to grow into confident adults, conscious of their identity and worth. Therefore, Manitos gives them the training they need for this, also giving importance to maintaining an open dialogue with the family, to integration of the students into their own community, and to the development of personal skills necessary to make the teenagers feel equal to their peers.

 Manitos is conscious of the importance and value of work for the children and teenagers, and refuses to accept the reality that many of them have had to live. They must study, play, and live in an adequate environment for their development. However, the socio-economic conditions in which they live is a reality that must be taken into account, and we therefore try to make their reality a little less inhuman, and to give them access to a more dignifying life and work environment, so that they can find their place in society...