Katie Cameron

“La gente cree que ve todo lo que soy. Y soy más de lo que pueden ver. 

Nosotros tenemos capacidad para dejar la calle.”

EDNICA            

Ednica campaign

Location:  Mexico City, Mexico

Sponsorship of Program: Private, nonprofit. Not politically or religiously affiliated.

Approximate # of children served: At the San Felipe de Jesus Parish in the Observatorio Zone, approximately three hundred children have been served under the programs created/supported with the help of Ednica.  Since Ednica is a neighborhood initiative movement, the community overall is united and improved to alleviate the problem of street children.

History/background: Ednica was founded in 1989. Ednica’s first project collaborated with the San Felipe de Jesus Parish in the Observatorio Zone, west of Mexico City. The parish had experience in community work, but never had directed its efforts toward street children or children at risk. After four years (1994-1997) of collaboration with Ednica, San Felipe de Jesús took total control of the programs the two organizations had developed working with street and at risk children and youth. Their work forms part of a larger community effort developed by the parish and has served over three hundred community children and their families.

Today, Ednica is working in the Zona de Indios Verdes, to the north of Mexico City in an effort to improve the community that began in 1998. The San Felipe de Jesús

Foundation is one of the collaborating organizations in this community.

Ednica’s services: Ednica believes that the problem of street children is a matter of family and community development rather than one of short-term assistance. In order for a child to be able to leave street life or to avoid it, he or she needs at least three things:

basic living conditions, a community based identity, and work opportunities off the street. Ednica helps children leave the streets through the community institutionalization of efforts benefiting youth and the mobilization of existing community resources.

Financial basis: Ednica is a private, nonprofit organization. Ednica in financed by international cooperation agencies and foundations, Mexican and international private enterprise as well as from individuals and interested groups in Mexico and abroad.

Philosophy/approach: Mission Statement: Incidir en la construcción de organizaciones infantiles, mediante el impulso de acciones sociales y comunitarias a favor de la niñez callejera y en riesgo de serlo, para mejorar sus condiciones de vida, en un marco de transformación social en donde los seres humanos sean respetados y puedan construir y ejercer sus derechos.

Special Features: Ednica works with the community members and organizations to improve aspects of the neighborhood that the community identifies as needing help.  Ednica seeks to better the overall conditions of the area that will ultimately bring children from the streets and prevent others from becoming street children.