2010 has brought many magical moments for the children that we are working with. A significant part of our program development over the past year was aimed at looking at what kind of environment we could create in resource deprived child care settings. Environments are crucial, as they can either serve to support a more intimate relationship between caregiver and child, or make one more difficult. Our aim at Whole Child is to develop something that can be taken to scale globally, is cost effective, and culturally appropriate.  As a part of this effort, over the last year, Whole Child has created more intimate and developmentally appropriate environments in one of our pilot sites in Nicaragua. The goal is for the children to explore, develop and play, staying engaged in their play until it is their turn to have more intimate one-on-one time with their caregiver.  One exciting addition   has been the construction of a large sandbox. Children ranging from early infancy to thirteen years of age have taken to the sandbox with the same curiosity, joy and intrigue. Observing young adolescents shriek with happiness from the feel of sand between their toes is moving to anyone who observes. To add more excitement to the mix, caregivers are climbing into the sandbox with them. Watching these caregivers kick off their shoes and build just as many sand castles as the children is proof that a day in the life of an orphanage can slow down.

The infants were no different. Without words to give to their experience, the babies stared in awe as they watched sand get stuck to their fingertips, possibly a sensation they have never felt before. Searching around for an answer to their feeling, they chose exploration instead.  Since these children are given enough materials to satisfy their interests as an explorative child, the attention of the caregiver can now be easily divided. What once was a room of screaming children all demanding their needs to be met, has now become a group of children completely engaged for over an hour without conflict or aggression.
Environmental changes are crucial to the development of the child. Having available materials can be very helpful when laps are in short supply which can happen when child to caregiver ratios are overwhelming and limited. The immediate evidence and instant observation of growth for these children is without comparison. A sandbox is one step of many towards the creation of a home supported by all that surrounds it with a commitment to the interests, needs, and love of the child.

2009 has been an exciting year at Whole Child. Working in orphanages of both Nicaragua and El Salvador, our year was filled with continuing our work in our existing orphanages while we staged new interventions in both countries. Thanks to our supporters, we were able to reach many more institutionalized children and continue to refine of our program to ensure that we meaningfully improve their lives to the highest degree.

Program Refinement and Expansion

One of the most compelling new elements of our program is the documentation of the life of each institutionalized child. Whole Child has provided each child with a memory book, and has trained each caregiver to recognize and document key moments in every boy’s and girl’s life and record her observations in the memory book. When possible, caregivers also include photographs and other keepsakes. The memory books provide children with a sense of their own personal history, while fostering a deepened relationship between the primary caregiver and child. Most children leave an orphanage with no record of their months, years, or entire childhoods while in institutional care. Whole Child’s memory book program is a gift to each child that will truly last a lifetime.

In El Salvador, 2009 brought a significant change in government. The full implementation of Whole Child programs depends on a close collaboration with the ministries that oversee child welfare systems. Therefore, a smooth transition was especially important to maintain the continuity of our work. We are pleased to say that the new government of Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes has been a receptive and collaborative partner. Most notably and importantly, the new First Lady, Dr. Vanda Pignato, has embraced our work and we are looking forward to a long and rewarding partnership with her and her office in the years to come.

Building Key Partnerships

In 2009 Whole Child celebrated its second year of participation in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), President Bill Clinton’s preeminent charitable organization, which pairs carefully screened charities with appropriate funding partners. This year, Whole Child was selected as one of the top NGOs at CGI with an announcement of our CGI Commitment to Action. CGI highlighted our organization and our current and forthcoming work as an example of how to alleviate the crisis of the care of vulnerable children in the developing world.

Another of our key supporters, SISEL International, stepped up its financial contributions in 2009 and has played an instrumental role in securing our future during these difficult financial times. As of this writing, Founder and CEO Karen Gordon has just returned from Nicaragua, where SISEL provided and helped distribute gifts to the children and their caregivers for the holidays.

With all the opportunity that 2010 brings, Whole Child International needs financial support for our ambitious and cost-effective answer to one of the world’s most enduring problems — the devastating developmental impact of poor caregiving on the millions of children who live in institutions. As an early intervention program, the sooner we reach each child, the more benefit that child will have from our work. With a strong program in place for replication, our financial resources are the greatest limiter of the number of children we can reach.

Please visit www.wholechild.org/giving to donate. By expanding our capacity to reach new orphanages and new countries, your donation will have tremendous and direct impact on the world’s least fortunate children.

Whole Child International is a 501(c)(3) public charity. All contributions are tax-deductible in the United States to the fullest extent of the law.

Our program leadership met today with the new First Lady of El Salvador, Dr. Vanda Pignato. The First Lady is a Brazilian-born lawyer and the wife of Mauricio Funes, who was sworn in as President on June 3.

Over the course of an hour and a half, El Salvador National Director Gabriela Serrano and Founder & Chairman Karen Gordon outlined Whole Child’s work thus far in El Salvador, and discussed our long-term ambitions to help the children of El Salvador.

We are also grateful to have been joined by our friend and colleague in El Salvador, Maria Teresa Zuniga, and the government’s Director of Childhood, Matilde Guadalupe de Espinoza. Overall it was a thoughtful and constructive introduction to the new government, and we are optimistic about forging new levels of collaboration as we move forward in El Salvador.

Left to right: Maria Teresa Zuniga, Gabriela Serrano, Dr. Vanda Pignato, Karen Gordon, and Matilde Guadalupe de Espinoza.Â

Whole Child is proud to announce a new partnership with the Earth Stewardship Foundation. The Foundation is the new nonprofit arm of Sisel International, the company of Whole Child’s philanthropic partner Tom Mower, Sr.

The Earth Stewardship Foundation’s mission is “to create a safe haven for abandoned children, endangered wildlife, and fragile environments.” Based on the support we have received thus far from Tom Mower, we know that the Earth Stewardship Foundation will make a major difference in its philanthropic focuses.

We’re glad to have Earth Stewardship Foundation and Sisel International as key partners in our work.

We are proud to announce the graduation of 84 caregiver trainees in our training program in Nicaragua on March 4, 5, and 6, 2009. This second group of graduates are from the Pajarito Azul, New Life, and Arca de Noë children’s homes, as well other institutions from across Managua.

 One of the three groups of 2008-9 trainees celebrate their accomplishment…

The next priority is to provide the caregivers with hands-on technical assistance in their institutions, to ensure the training is fully applied and the caregiving practices continue to reach the children in perpetuity.

Whole Child has just concluded Phase-1 planning for our program in El Salvador during a busy week in San Salvador. The week’s activities included meetings with our evaluators from the University of Pittsburgh and the long-anticipated initial administrative training session for the directors of our first three partner orphanages.

The week started with the planning session, which included the directors of one of the children’s homes, Adalberto Guirola, who helped us fully envision the adaptation of our previous work in Nicaragua for these Salvadoran sites. The directors, both nuns, have been our partners since 2005, when they accompanied Whole Child to the Pikler Institute, our model orphanage in Budapest. They have always been a rich source of input for the real-world application of our methodology, and it was deeply rewarding to begin to see our work realizing itself in the Salvadoran partner orphanages.

By then, Drs. Bob McCall and Chris Groark from the University of Pittsburgh had completed their exhaustive baseline study at Adalberto Guirola and San Vicente de Paul orphanages, and the path was cleared for us to begin work in the first to come online, Adalberto Guirola. The work began by creating a clear roadmap to the establishment of small groups, continuity of care, primary care, and other targeted strategies and methods to improve institutionalized children’s lives.

Administrative Training

The directors and technical team (psychologists, social workers, etc.) of the initial three institutions — Hogar San Vicente de Paul, Hogar Guirola, and CIPI — attended a two-day training introducing our principles and outlining their application in these settings.

The participants were receptive and enthusiastic, and by the end of the second day seemed to have clear visions of the program implemented in their institutions. But, as one of the directors told the Regional Program Manager, Gabriela Serrano, ” I usually go to trainings and leave fine. After this training I have a huge sense of responsibility for all that needs to change.”

Another focused on the need to keep children with consistent caregivers, telling the assembled participants: “I had never felt comfortable changing children from group to group, but had not been able to say it out loud. This proves my gut feeling of keeping children with the same groups.”

The challenge is clear to us all. The next step is to implement.

As we begin our preliminary assessment work in El Salvador, the Salvadoran government will formally announce the beginning of operations at a formal media event on Thursday, October 23. The First Lady of El Salvador, Ana Ligia Mixco Sol de Saca, is hosting the event at el Hogar de Niños Adalberto Guirola, one of the three orphanages that will be the initial focus of our work in El Salvador.

The event will bring together the First Lady and Whole Child with our corporate partners at TACA and Scotiabank, our government partners at Programa Ternura, and officials from ISNA, the Salvadoran governmental institute for the Social Development of Children and Adolescents.

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Update: the First Lady’s event was attended by approximately 150 people, including members of the Salvadoran press as well as many of the caregivers and administrators we will soon be working with.

 The Adalberto Guirola children’s home hosted the event.

Founding Executive Director Karen Gordon and Regional Program Manager Gabriela Serrano addressed the event, introducing our principles of care and providing an overview of our previous work in both El Salvador and Nicaragua. Others who spoke included (l-r) Carmen Elisa Sosa de Callejos, President of ISNA; First Lady of El Salvador Ana Ligia Mixco Sol de Saca; Celina de Kreite, President of Gloria de Kreite Foundation and wife of TACA’s CEO Roberto Kreite; and Lazaro Figueroa, Director of Communications and Marketing for Scotiabank.

The First Lady presented Karen Gordon with an award for Whole Child’s “invaluable work on behalf of boys and girls in the Children’s Homes of El Salvador.” Karen accepted the award, sharing it with the caregivers and administrators in the children’s homes, as well as our indispensable partners in El Salvador, the TACA airline group and Scotiabank.

Whole Child’s work is progressing in Nicaragua. The primary focus for spring and summer is on training the administrators and caregivers at four new institutions; continuing and broadening our impact at the pilot orphanage; and building our Managua-based team.

For the past two months our training team has consisted of trainer Marta Periera and regional program manager Gabriela Serrano, both of whom have just returned from training at Pikler Institute in Budapest, Hungary. Marta was joined at Pikler by Arlae Gomez, recently hired to fill the second training position in Nicaragua. Arlae is due to arrive in Managua shortly, where she will implement technical support in our partner orphanages, mentor local apprentice trainers as they come aboard, and help lead training sessions.

The year’s second training sessions took place over three days late last month. As always, the training sessions featured direct learning, workshops, and discussion, described in greater detail below. This learning will be continuously reinforced at all five participating institutions through the ongoing presence of Whole Child’s trainers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Whole Child International is proud to announce a $25,000 contribution from Scotiabank. The Canadian corporation’s Salvadoran bank championed this donation, thus becoming an early partner in our efforts to raise a significant portion of our program budget from local stakeholders.

We look forward to working with Scotiabank and its employees in our programming in El Salvador in the months and years to come.