Welcome to Conviven´s weblog!

This blog was put together to create a space that could connect the volunteers and the children at Conviven. Through this blog, we can establish a link to Conviven for foreign volunteers-- in their time before arriving in Argentina, at Conviven, and after their departure. This blog can keep you up to date on what is going at Conviven and with its community members.

Conviven is an NGO oriented to promote and favour social and community development for children, teenagers, young people, and families living in one of the most impoverished neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires – nicknamed Villas Miserias (Miserable Slums). We are talking about Ciudad Oculta (The Hidden City) at the border of Mataderos and Villa Lugano, where around 10,000 people live in marginality, and below the poverty line.

Conviven was founded in 1994 by Valmir S. Vieira, a Protestant Church missionary who, today, continues to devote his time to running Conviven. In 1998 Conviven moved to its present location on the edge of Villa 15.

Among the many problems created by the national socio-economic crisis, in a country where every day 55 children die during the lactation phase as a result of poverty, there has been a high growth in social marginality in the past years. This growth affects all generations, and in particular, children, adolescents and young people that come from under-resourced homes lacking basic neccessities. This situation stems from lost familial expectations and hope, with limited clean living space during youth and adolescence. As a result, there has been an increase of certain problems such as educational desertion, delinquency, juvenile prostitution, drug addiction and alcoholism.

Through Conviven, we instrument multiple prevention programs oriented towards infants, children and adolescents. Conviven targets populations from the Barrio General Belgrano, Villa 15, Ciudad Oculta, and Lugano, one of the neighborhoods labeled as a Priority Action neighborhood. Our challenge is to create a recreational, formative, andeducational space, that can give possibility to children, youth and adolescents of both sexes. We hope to re-enforce their education, or re-insert them into the educational system, provide athletic, social and cultural activities.

Conviven's mission is to create a space that fulfils the following objectives:

• Provide a nurturing and caring environment in all activities
• Create bonds of friendship and healthy co-living
• Establish practical and fair discipline
• Share and restore moral and ethical principles
• Provide adequate educational classes
• Provide occupational training