It has been a decade since Paniamor, together with the Aflatoun Network, undertook the task of empowering children in early childhood to be aware of their multiple resources – emotional, family, cultural, and financial. Children learn how to use these resources, making them grow and strengthen in creative ways.
It sounds a bit strange at first, but the idea is simple: girls and boys are people with rights and responsibilities, and as such, they have their own desires, goals and needs. Therefore, these abstract concepts are materialized through their dreams, creations and capabilities.
Helping them become aware of this also helps them to take responsibility, strengthen their capacities, relationships and links in their different contexts. This also enhances the capacity for empathy on the part of girls and boys. By being more aware of themselves, it is easier to be aware of their partners.
Paniamor does this through the “Recreando Valor” model, which develops socio-financial competences in girls and boys between 3 and 7 years old. This is a fundamental period for acquiring key skills to make decisions, negotiate, and develop critical and creative thinking.
The Process
First quinquennium:
This process was a10-year job, since in 2009 Paniamor joined the Aflatoun Network and in 2010, they were selected as regional representatives in the Aflatoun Curriculum Development Group.
In 2011, they validated Aflateen proposal as a component of Paniamor project called “Solo para chicas” (only for girls), which worked with 245 teenagers that year. In 2012, Paniamor was invited to the Aflatoun Global Curriculum Review Workshop and the Regional curricular development group.
Paniamor was selected in 2013 to create a version of the Aflatot global program and conduct a pilot. It was then that the “Recreando Valor” model was developed, to be applied in Costa Rica.
Second quinquennium:
Starting in 2014, Recreando Valor (RV) starts to take its first steps in the Centers of Education and Nutrition (CEN) and Children’s Centers for Nutrition and Comprehensive Care (CINAI), thanks to the partnership with the National Directorate of these centers, the Ministry of Health, Cooperservidores RL and the Business Alliance for Development (AED).
The following year, 2015, Paniamor achieved the validation of Recreating Valor with 1,834 girls and boys from 30 children’s centers in the South Central Region of the National Directorate CEN-CINAI.
These efforts have been recognized by the business sector. In 2016, the Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica awarded Paniamor the ‘Commitment to Excellence’ award in the category of ‘Social Responsibility’, to Cooperservidores RL, for its participation in the development of the Recreando Valor program.
In the last follow-up report (2018), there were 8,015 active girls and 8,039 boys active in the model, for a total active population of 16,054. Only two years after the first registration, the participating population had increased almost 9 times.
Since the previous year, 407 children’s centers have applied the socio-economic training curriculum for girls and boys between 3 and 7 years of age in the seven regions of the CEN-CINAI National Directorate throughout Costa Rica.
This is how a public-private partnership between government institutions, private companies and civil society organizations, works in the construction of citizenship from early childhood, recognizing children as persons subject to rights, capable of realizing their dreams.
