Fundación Promigas is a non-profit organization founded in 1999 by members of the private sector.  The organization is committed to generating conditions that improve the quality of life in Colombia’s coastal communities.  The organization’s three main areas of concern are the economic development, social progress, and quality of education in the region. While Promigas’ main headquarters is located in Barranquilla, it operates programs along the coast in several areas including La Guajira, Magdalena, Atlántico, Bolívar, Sucre, and Córdoba.  Each year, Fundación Promigas generates positive changes in the lives of over 200,000 men, women, and children in the region.

Promigas holds two central tenets: 1. that each person is the agent of his or her own development and 2. that in order to have a true impact, endeavors must be sustainable.  To this end, the organization develops long range plans to foster the strengthening of the individual. Most of these efforts are concentrated in the schools themselves offering increased academic and vocational training to the region’s youth. In order to work as closely with the communities as possible, Promigas partners with other organizations with similar objectives to implement the projects in the different regions.

In operation since 2001, the program “Escuelas de Lectoras” gives teachers the necessary tools to design and execute their own strategies for implementing structured literacy programs in their schools. In addition, the schools’ specific curricula are adapted to the new reading promotion strategies.  As part of the National Reading and Libraries Plan, the program provides each institution with a mobile library.  The Secretariat of Education lends its support by providing coordination activities, snacks, material, and project follow-up.  A grant from The Genesis Foundation will enable Fundación Promigas to implement the “Escuelas de Lectoras” program in 16 additional schools and 14 towns in Atlántico, benefiting over 4,500 students ages three to fifteen and more than 150 teachers.

Since 2008, the Genesis Foundation has participated in the project “Primeros Pasos a la Excelencia”, a program supporting ten preschools in Barranquilla. The program strengthens four areas: (1) strengthening of the Institutional Education Plans, (2) teacher training, (3) improvement of the students’ nutritional health, (4) and work with the parents. This projects stems from a successful pilot carried out in six schools in the region.

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