Rekko Onlus
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Mission Statement
Support and promote initiatives that promote access to health and education services, aimed at improving the well-being of socially marginalized and vulnerable people and helping to reduce social injustice.
About This Cause
Rekko ONLUS (Rekko) is a volunteering association, not religious and apolitical, founded in 1985. Between 1985 and 1995 , Rekko completed 6 projects in Africa which have been financed and lunched by Rekko, and then donated to local organisations and communities. Between these projects : a kindergarten, a professional school, housing for the homeless, a water system, a solar powered electricity plant. Today, the activities of the association are focused around the themes of health and education. Mainly, Rekko ONLUS directly supports "Rekko Guatemala's " (sister association) projects in Guatemala as well as one project in Tanzania. Health related projects and initiatives: In 1996 in Guatemala we started the construction of an hospital in what was a remote and rural community called "San Pedro Yepocapa". The project opened its' doors in 1998 and is still running today. However since 2003, the project's has shifted its' services from those of a hospital to those of a medical center (this was mainly due to changes in rules and regulations at the country level). This center is called Rekko 7. In 2008 we opened a second medical center in La Antigua Guatemala ; this center is called Rekko 8. This center, like the first one, offers access to a number of different health professionals and specialties. In both our clinics we offer low cost or free health services. We offer free services to those that qualify, and we have a dedicated Social Worker that analyses each case. Both our clinics run thanks to local professionals (and students coming from local universities) 365 days a year. We also have a year round volunteering program which aims to involve local and international doctors and health specialists. The contribution of these volunteers is especially useful to us, as it allows Rekko to bring health services directly in the most remote communities. Education Projects and Initiatives Since 2012 we have lunched an early educational project in San Pedro Yepocapa, within the premises of the Rekko7 medical center. This project started with the initial intent of providing a safe and loving environment for the daughters and sons of the women working in the local market. The project has evolved through the years, and since 2014 Rekko decided to make the project much more central and direct more funds to it. As a result of this increased commitment to the project, we decided to enroll the school in the "Plantando Semilla" program. As part of this program, we received training for all our educational staff and director, we renovated our classrooms and integrated a Spanish pedagogue in the educational team. 2015 was then our first year running the school fully implementing this educational method which has been theorized in Canada by merging aspects of many different educational theories, including Montessori. Our school transformed from being "only" a shelter for kids, to becoming a center of excellence which in 2019 become the best performing school in Guatemala (between the school implementing this methodology). Each year 44 children aged between 4 and 6 attend the school. They receive, on top of their schooling, nutritional support and access to free medical services (including dentistry). Parents of the enrolled children are involved in the school activities through volunteering opportunities and learning session with our Social Worker and Psychologist (we mainly deal with "healthy parenting" topics). From 2017 we started a scholarship program to support in their education the children coming out from our kindergarten . Children enrolled in this project are enrolled in the best school available locally and they receive free tutoring from our teachers in the afternoon. So far, over 40 students are enrolled in this program. As part of our commitment in and around education, and especially early childhood education, in 2016 Rekko has started supporting a small community kindergarten in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). Rekko's representative encountered the teachers of these school during a field trip. The desire of helping the project survive and thrive, mixed with the curiosity of seeing if it was possible to replicate the success that we have registered in Tanzania, Rekko started to support this center. We wrote with them a project with short, medium and long term objectives; these ranged from creating a register of all the attending children, to renovating the facility that they were using as a school to registering their school with local authorities and gain the non profit recognition. The objectives that Rekko desired to achieve with this school were : improve the educational quality, professionalize the teachers and create an environment which could help them fund raise locally or internationally without the support of Rekko. This project is on-going . Solidarity : Solidarity is our engine. As part of our commitment to our donors and our projects, we accomplish all our administrative, fundraising and volunteer recruitment work thanks to volunteers. In this way we aim to maintain the lowest possible amount of expenses. In 2017, one of our volunteers created a sister association in Spain (Rekko Iberica) with the goal of coordinating volunteers and donations from Spain.