Nueva Frontera Area Program

Education
Most primary schools are small, single-teacher institutions that often lack basic teaching materials and equipment. Teachers often do not have adequate training. Parents, many of whom are illiterate themselves, do not always prioritize their children's education or know how to support and motivate their children at home. This means that children do not have opportunities to develop important life skills.

Health
Poor hygiene, sanitation, and food handling practices hurt children who are already weakened from recurring bouts of diarrhea. Damp conditions in children's homes, as well as smoke inhalation from indoor wood burning furnaces, also lead to recurring respiratory infections. Most houses still have dirt floors and either adobe or "bahareque mud walls.

Chronic malnutrition affects 29% of children under the age of five. Impoverished families often do not have enough food to feed their children. Many do not know how to prepare nutritious meals. In fact, children often begin life underweight, because their mothers did not receive adequate food during their pregnancy.

Community Leadership
For many youth between the ages of 12 and 18, the future looks very bleak. The majority of adolescents are unable to continue their education beyond the primary level for a variety of reasons. Their parents often cannot afford it, and in some cases, children have to work to help their families survive. Breakdown of family relationships and the loss of a moral and spiritual compass leave youth easy prey to alcoholism and drug addiction. In recent years, 24% pregnant women were under the age of 18. For these young people, who should still be continuing their education, the reality they face is unemployment, with little hope for additional training or job opportunities.

• Establish "parent schools that will help parents develop the literacy, numeracy, and parenting skills they need to motivate children at home.
• Train teachers in methodologies to engage and motivate children to learn.
• Establish peer-to-peer tutoring programs to help improve academic performance.
• Mobilize and train teachers, parents, and school boards to monitor and continually to improve the quality of education.
• Train children in their rights, values, and life skills.
• Organize student governments to help develop participation and leadership skills.

• Help pregnant women get the food, training, and prenatal care they require to have healthier pregnancies, deliveries, and babies.
• Teach parents about preventive health care, like vaccination, when to seek health care, and nutrition, including how to prepare a balanced diet using local food.
• Train health staff and volunteers to monitor growth and cognitive development in young children.
• Improve hygiene and sanitation practices in homes by training and supporting parents to adopt new behaviours.
• Help families start home gardens and raise small animals to improve their diet.

• Train leaders of community-based organizations, and help them focus development efforts on improving the wellbeing of youth.
• Organize youth networks and train young people so they can participate in and influence community development decisions and activities.
• Support youth to identify solutions to their challenges and implement projects that respond accordingly.
• Train teachers in continuing education and technical programs.
• Develop partnerships with local public and private organizations to provide adolescents and youth with secondary education, vocational training, and income generation.