After the pandemic, Public Schools nationwide suffered a delay in the maintenance of their infrastructure, furniture, equipment, and educational materials. Likewise, Schools require support to reinforce the nutritional health of the school kitchen, since student eating budgets do not cover the nutritional needs of one meal a day (in some cases the only one that children eat). Recognizing the importance of education, SOMOS set the goal of intervening in 5 schools in the Bahía Ballena district.

The process includes 3 stages:

STAGE 1
Assessment of Schools and their Needs: To ensure that the fundraising efforts addresses the specific requirements of each school. This evaluation includes meetings with the School Director, some parents, sometimes teachers and ideally the approval of the Board of Education. These data have been achieved 70% for 4 schools and 100% for 1 School.
‍

STAGE 2
Budget Proposal Based on official estimates: Once the assessment is complete, the SOMOS Foundation gathers estimates from suppliers and contractors to determine the budget required for the identified improvements and enhancements. This budget proposal provides a detailed breakdown of the costs involved in each category, ensuring transparency and accountability in the fundraising campaign.

STAGE 3
Fundraising Efforts: To effectively raise and manage funds it is crucial to establish specific categories that align with the identified needs of the schools. These categories will help donors understand how their contributions will be allocated and ensure that funds are utilized optimally. The creation of categories will be included in the project development cost.

During 2023-2024, the SOMOS team managed to complete the complete support route for the Lagunas de Barú School; building a new kitchen space, a multipurpose classroom and installing a Playground. The Lagunas School is a single-teacher school that, before the SOMOS project, had a single physical space, where lessons were given, cooking was done, children ate in the same classroom, and it did not have a playground.