Program Title:
Protege Tu Corazon (Protect Your Heart) Program in Argentina

Location:
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Requested NGO and Partner:
Protege Tu Corazon Inc.

Program Summary:

Today’s world offers teenagers a vast variety of options especially when it comes to decide over their sexuality, drugs, and alcohol abuse.  Most teens have little or no communication with their parents which makes them very vulnerable to pressure from peers and media, and too often teens make the wrong choices due to lack of advice or supervision from parents.

Protege Tu Corazon (PTC) is a large-scale character education program in Argentina based on chastity. Its mission is to form children and adolescents in the fundamental moral values and to develop a strong character, so that they are able to make responsible choices especially related to their sexuality and other issues that might affect their purity and integrity. As a program for children and institutions of all religions, PTC Argentina was founded in 2001 as a local branch of Protege Tu Corazon Internacional (Protect your Heart International).

With 18,682 children enrolled today, PTC continues to offer educational institutions a program of workshops for students of ages between 7 and 18 years old, as well as workshops for their parents.

PTC aims to help with children and teenagers:        

• To acquire a profound knowledge of self, a respect for others and a self-control in order to live responsibly and in freedom

• To appreciate life as a fundamental value from conception to natural death

• To generate an attitude towards human sexuality as intimately related to love and the generation of life

• To comprehend one’s sexuality as a sacred part of our being and that it deserves the maximum respect

• To recognize and resist negative pressures from peer group and media

• To acquire abilities and skills to attain self-control, as the fundamental basis to reach any goal in life and with parents:

• To strengthen the channels of communication and to promote the dialogue between parents and their children

• To offer pedagogical and practical tools

• To understand and comprehend the teenage world better

• To learn to connect heart-to-heart with their children and influence them positively

• To grow in the ability to speak and talk naturally with their children and with clarity

PTC has reached approximately 100,000 people in its 12 years of service throughout different cities of Argentina, both in rural and city areas. Despite the growing need of requests, many low-income schools that wish to receive the program do not find the necessary means and funds to pay for its cost.

With your help, Foundation for Women's Advancement is partnering with PTC to fund the next phase of the program’s growth, specifically:

To continue its expansion throughout the interior areas of Argentina and be able to maintain systematic growth over time.

To increase and maintain a solid roster of instructors with the required skills and qualities needed to continue its successful path.

EXPECTED 2019 IMPACT:

Total women and families impacted: 32,000

Total women enrolled in : 19,735