"FEN-SCHOOL OF TALENT DEVELOPMENT"
Scholarships for academic support.

The CAF continues its alliance, a decade-long today, with the School of Economics and Business (FEN) of the University of Chile supporting students in their last years of high school to prepare them for superior education. They were selected based on their school performance and academic potential, from schools where the school vulnerability index is 75% or above, which reflects both the extreme poverty condition of their students as well as the percentage risk of school failure.

FEN-EDT selects every year 80 students from 30 schools, preferably technical-vocational high schools, in Santiago, Aysén, Viña del Mar and Lautaro.  Since 2014 to 2023, more than 100 graduates from this program have completed their degree in different universities and have started their professional career.

Juan Pablo Villagra, who graduated with the EDT's generation of 2019 and is currently studying Auditing-Accounting at University of Chile, says: “I came from a school in Pudahuel [RM] where I was already among the best students. At that point EDT strengthened my learning and my academic level, and they also helped me meet interesting people. I am on the third year of my career and it has not been difficult, partly because of EDT, because it not only prepared me academically, but it also guided me to handle stress and how to face my challenges”.

The Foundation will support this successful program with a contribution of $5,500 from its general fund.

“STRENGHTHENING SELF-ESTEEM”
For girls and adolescents.

This project will benefit a group of 15 girls and adolescents who live under the protection of the state in Santiago. In their short lives their rights have been gravely violated, which has impacted in their growth and in facing the emotional challenges associated with their environment in the shelter and for their future as women.

Fundación Niñas Valientes (Brave Girls) is a nonprofit organization that works towards building gender equity from childhood to adulthood through education and the construction of a violent-free atmosphere where the children play the main role. Their work responds to a researched results from different regions in Chile where women, from a very early age, are raised under gender preconceptions that will, eventually, affect their potential for a better future as grown women.

The adolescents will be led throughout six months by a specialized team who will provide the tools to strengthen their self-esteem and resilience through modules on various topics. They will participate in group and individual, didactic and ludic activities, such as games to identify what is a stereotype, personal value, peer support, self-acceptance and other topics, followed by a period of personal reflection and work.

The Chilean-American Foundation will contribute US$4,000 for this project.

“AFTER SCHOOL: A SPACE FOR LEARNING”
Children's education workshops.

This project will allow 30 children, aged 4 to 6, to participate, throughout the school year and in a safe place, learning workshops at the School Las Palmas in Llay Llay. The students will attend four hours every day and will be assisted in developing both their socio-emotional and school abilities, as well as receiving needed snacks.

Fundación Acompañando Pasos (Supporting Steps Foundation), with its affiliate Fundación Padre Semería, who has an experience of 40 years in childhood topics, determined and created the program “After School”, after a research at the local level showed that 85% of children’s parents, guardians or caretakers do not have the possibility to be with them after school hours because of their long work schedule. This situation also concerns them in that it is affecting the children’s schoolwork.

This program, with no cost to the parents, promotes the integral development of children from 1st to 4th grade in elementary public schools, in localities of high social vulnerability and where parents cannot be with the children after school hours. Currently, the program is being offered to 180 children in six schools in the Metropolitan Region and in Region V, Valparaíso.

We will support this project with a contribution of US$4,000.