ICVolunteers Projects Calendar

Evening

This year the event will be held in the Center of Contemporary Art in Geneva in the Plainpalais district on Thursday, 30 October 2008. The hall can accommodate 400 guests and space will be provided to accommodate different buffets, tables, a stage for the live music and bars.

The evening will begin at 7:30 PM and end around 2:00 AM.

Objectives

• Organize a charity event to raise funds that will support the work of Casa Alianza on the ground;
• Raise awareness among a generation of youngsters aged 30-50 years to the problems of street children;
• Promote the antenna of Casa Alianza in Switzerland.

Casa Alianza on the ground

Casa Alianza is a non-governmental organization dedicated to social reintegration and family and the rights of street children in Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua). Founded in Guatemala in 1981, Casa Alianza is linked to the organization based at Covenant House in New York.

Casa Alianza is now recognized as a major player in Central America in the field of children's rights.

On the ground, Casa Alianza is nearly 30 years of experience and a rigorous methodology proved its value in the rehabilitation of street kids, in the heart of a program called "residential".

Relief and rehabilitation

Child care is organized according to a therapeutic approach in several stages. The first is to engage children in the street, then welcoming them in a welcome center, helping to stabilize and to socially reintegrate (school / vocational training). The rehabilitation process in Casa Alianza's centers is divided into several phases:

1. Integration of children: he is greeted, heard, and can express why he fled his home to live in the street, this allows meeting the most urgent to find a little comfort, be safe, eat, sleep under a roof, clothing and medicine.
2. Identification: working with children is intensive in terms of personal development, the psychological, academic work and health. The aim is to prepare young people for a smooth reintegration into society more concrete and to continue the restoration and strengthening of self-esteem.
3. Strengthening: to give children the tools needed for independent living, while promoting reintegration within the family.

In addition, specialized programs respond to situations (cessation of drugs, legal support, the fight against commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking of children, prevention of HIV/AIDS and reproductive health program for teenage mothers etc.).

To provide this assistance, Casa Alianza can relay on highly qualified staff of professionals, such as educators, psychologists, doctors, social workers.

Prevention and defense

Casa Alianza's prevention and defense work is dealing with legal issues (violating children's human rights, informing about human rights violations, reporting crimes perpetrated against them, participating in international lobbying for the rights of children) and prevention programs (training of people and police involved, animation of community centers accommodating populations at risk, etc.).

Casa Alianza Switzerland

Casa Alianza Switzerland, based on 3 December 1997 in Geneva, supports the action in favor of street children lead by Casa Alianza in Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua.

In Switzerland, the mission is focused on four main objectives:

• Fundraising to provide substantial financial support to targeted programs of Casa Alianza in Central America;
• Raising awareness among the Swiss population to the situation of street children in Central America;
• Representing Casa Alianza at international organizations, particularly the United Nations;
• Accompanying volunteers who want to get involved as volunteers in programs in Central America.