Fundación Gente Nueva - PETISOS

I recently visited an incredible program supported by One World Children's Fund (OWCF) in one of the most Southern regions of the world – Patagonia. I had the honor of meeting Elena Duron, founder of PETISOS and advocate for child rights and the elimination of child labor, and her husband Gustavo Gennuso who is the president of Fundación Gente Nueva. Elena is an Ashok Fellow who has been invited to speak about this program this coming May in Norway for the International Labor Organization’s conference on eradication of child labor. She took me to two locations and showed me everything from a local dump where they provide child outreach to the after school art programs and primary, secondary, and vocational schools.

PETISOS (­Prevención y Eradicación de Trabajo Inantíl S.O.S.) operates under the umbrella of Fundación Gente Nueva in order to provide services for the children that live and work in the dump in Bariloche. The town itself is beautiful, but in addition to sweeping mountain views and famous chocolate manufacturers, Bariloche has many unseen neighborhoods that consist of people living in the garbage and using their children as laborers in attempt to make ends meet. They live in bare-bone housing in the least desirable spot in town – a bluff surrounding the dump that is unprotected from icy winds and that gets waist-high snowfall for a good part of the year. Gente Nueva decided to address this enormous disparity by beginning an outreach program (PETISOS) that begins with child rehabilitation and eventually reaches further to include the families as well.

PETISOS currently has 200 active students from 79 different families that benefit directly from its services (about another 200 children are benefiting indirectly through participation in after school programs). While Gente Nueva addresses the larger issues of quality education and community services in the region, PETISOS reaches out to those students who are socially and culturally outcast from the children living more stable lives. Most of these children are illiterate at an advanced age, with little to no formal primary or secondary schooling, and all of them work in some sort of capacity. The most common (and high risk) jobs are trash collection, working on construction sites, selling drugs, and in some cases, child prostitution. PETISOS has extensive one-on-one services for these children, with psychological counseling, a team of coaches that develops a “personal plan” for each child, vocational training, and even job placement for those who graduate from the program. From the first batch of 30 graduates, Elena was able to find 30 jobs in hotels, supermarkets, and restaurants in town – 100% successful placement of former child laborers!

The younger children attend the primary and secondary schools with everybody else – we visited a primary school of 400 that educated about 50 PETISOS children. These kids have access to a wonderful community center covered in paintings of flowers and cheerful designs, where they can draw, have a snack, and even participate in an orchestra that OWCF has made possible through the purchase of instruments. Local teachers volunteer their time so the children actually have access to high quality services even though they live on the outskirts of town. PETISOS also provides classes in Excel, Word, and Office, and vocational training for those who prefer metal and wood working to computers. All of the education is completely free of charge thanks to continued funding, and PETISOS works tirelessly to remove children from compromised situations and give them a childhood.