From Susila Dharma International Association Website www.susiladharma.org

Entrelazos, Argentina

Posted in: Latin America, Child Development and Education

Mission and aims

La Obra Madre

Entrelazos (Intertwining) is an NGO whose mission is to strengthen the quality of bonds between human beings and affirm creative life by generating new cultures and ways of being and by undertaking ventures. For people and social groups at risk it provides adequate instruments for the discovery, creation and realisation of their own potential and qualities.

The aims of Entrelazos are:

To facilitate and develop creativity in life’s different activities; family, school, work, talents and social projects.
To develop programmes and creative gatherings which allow participants to strengthen and discover their qualities and skills and put them to the service of their needs and projects.
To develop the creative being, expand its energy field, liberating its receptivity and spontaneity.
To harmonize and integrate bonds in order to reconnect them in new meetings and connections.

Background and history

Entrelazos began in 2000 when the International Child Development Programme (ICDP) arrived in Buenos Aires, under the auspices of Susila Dharma International. The seminar, given by the international consultant Nicoletta Armstrong, brought together an attentive and enthusiastic group of Health, Psychology and Arts professionals. The experience in different fields of application – groups of mothers, schools, clubs and canteens – was very important and was the motive for a renewal of our ways of relating and working, allowing us to rediscover our professions and their different ways of linking up. We realised that this possibility of transformation could be found in any human group.

From this creative gathering the desire to found Entrelazos was born.

Starting from our foundation we began to exercise a programme based on some of the principles of ICDP which could be adapted for different at-risk communities.

Our team began to investigate and then to develop a programme of creativity capable of re-orienting and developing production of culture within those bonds and communities.

Thus it became evident that the theme of creativity was tightly linked to that of the quality of the bonds which were created and expanded to the different spheres of life: partners, family, school, handicap, work, talents and social projects. Our programmes were born from this joining between the improvement of the quality of the connections and the opening of a channel which we call the creative being which allows people to make contact and activate their qualities and skills. In this way, connections and creativity mutually embrace and expand.

Beneficiaries, participants: who, how, how many?

Since the year 2000 we have worked with the ICDP programme with 343 families - around 1,100 children—and trained 70 facilitators. Because of the crisis which battered our country over the past years, Entrelazos has worked in different communities at risk from neglect, hunger and violence. These communities were formed by families without work and with very precarious housing, immigrants without shelter, native populations, and to a great extent children who did not go to school and who were running important health risks.

Since 2006, Entrelazos, through its programme “La Obra Fantástica” worked with couples, families and children around the theme of family violence, as well as with groups of men on the subject of new masculinity and creativity in work. It worked with mixed groups on new life projects, both indoors and in natural spaces.

In 2003 Entrelazos incorporated the “La Obra Madre” programme, a theatre and dance programme for people with different physical, mental and sensorial capacities.

The programme works with disabled children of low-income families. About 80 people aged between 18 and 50 have participated in its workshops. Their parents and siblings also work with them periodically. These days of work bring together more than 100 people each time.

Activities, programmes and geographical regions

Entrelazos organises talks, gatherings, exhibitions and weekly and monthly day-long workshops both indoors and in natural spaces.

ICDP until 2006: Southern Zone of Gran Buenos Aires, Nono-Traslasierra, Córdoba and Tafí del Valle provinces, Tucumán province.

La Obra Fantástica programme since 2006: Southern and Northern Zones of Gran Buenos Aires and Amanecer, Colombia.

La Obra Madre programme since 2003: Southern and Northern Zones of Gran Buenos Aires, Mendoza Province, Santa Cruz Province and Madrid, Spain.

Partners- organisations, community groups etc.

ICDP (International Child Development Programme), UNICEF (Argentina headquarters), APHE (Association of Parents of Special Children), Susila Dharma International Association, Susila Dharma Britain, Susila Dharma Netherlands, BRINDAR Association, UNQUI (National University of Quilmes), CREDICOOP Bank, Quilmes Municipality, Florencia Varela Municipality, La Reconquista School (Tigre), TIF Theatre (Madrid), Secretariat for Disability (Government of Mendoza), Secretariat for Disability (Government of Santa Cruz), IPEM School (Nono, Córdoba Province).

Entrelazos
c/o Camila Haydée Romero
(1405) Colpayo 380 .4º Piso
Departamento “B”
Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires
Argentina

Tel: 5411-4988-9641

E-mail: haromero@yahoo.com

Download Entrelazos's Annual Reports