“THOSE WHO ARE PREPARED TO JOIN HANDS CAN OVERCOME THE GREATEST CHALLENGES”
- NELSON MANDELA

WHO WE ARE

Todos Juntos was founded in early 2005 to act within slum communities and together with the participation of these same communities, to assist the most vulnerable groups to improve their daily living conditions by meeting their basic needs and improving access to basic services.

WHY WE STARTED

Today over a billion people around the world live in slums and an estimated three billion more will be without decent housing by the year 2030. That is one third of the people on the globe. In Argentina alone an estimated 18 million people of the 38 million total population live today below the poverty line. In Greater Buenos Aires a third of the population are considered to live below this level.

Todos Juntos is a non profit organization registered in Argentina and was set up with the goal to improve the daily living conditions of some of the most impoverished families living in the slums in and around the city of Buenos Aires.

Known locally as the “villas miserias” or misery tows these sprawling city slums are home to thousands of families living in extremely precarious conditions in makeshift homes often without proper sanitation, electricity or running water. Most of these families do not have the same opportunities in terms of education and access to healthcare. Within these growing squatter communities there often exists a climate of misery, lawlessness and criminality and children growing up in these neighbourhoods are exposed daily to drugs, violence, alcohol, crime and, unfortunately, hunger.

These are the children Todos Juntos works with.

WHAT WE DO

Although Argentina has a well established health care system and an education system available, in theory to all, severe lack of government resources has affected primarily the disadvantaged and the socially marginalized population of these dilapidated towns. A very large percentage of those living in the slums around the city of Buenos Aires have little or no access to even poorly equipped, under-funded schools and health clinics.

Todos Juntos was founded to act within these communities and assist the most destitute families. Our target is first and foremost the children living in these slums. Our goal is not to replace the state but to try and fill some of the existing gaps through smaller self funded projects. We also try to build awareness through the exchange of information and hands on interaction between the more fortunate and less fortunate citizens of Buenos Aires as we believe it important for people, often cut off from the realities of poverty, to try and make a difference in the lives of those who have less.

In July 2006 our European chapter the “Todos Juntos Children’s Trust” became a registered charity (No.1115344) in the United Kingdom. The object of this charity is to support the work of Todos Juntos in Argentina. The Todos Juntos Children’s Trust will help with all our projects assisting the most vulnerable groups. They will also help in developing resources and long lasting solutions to combat the poverty related problems of the slums in Argentina .

Todos Juntos Children’s Trust will be responsible for fundraising and fundraising events within the UK. For more information, please go to www.todosjuntos.org.uk

OUR ACTIVITIES

Over the past two years Todos Juntos has established itself over the geographical area of the Municipality of San Martin (second largest district of Buenos Aires) where more then one tenth of the total population live in slum dwellings. Together with the local authorities, Todos Juntos has several ongoing activities related directly to making long lasting improvements to the conditions of the slums.

- For two years now we have supported a network of rundown soup kitchens by supplying refrigerators, kitchen stoves, hot water boilers, beds, tables and chairs etc.
- We also provide school supplies, shoes and clothes for the poorest children and their families. A child without shoes cannot go to school.
- We also believe in the concept of one man’s unwanted goods being another’s resource and so offer a very cost-effective outlet for huge quantities of discarded clothes and goods that Buenos Aires expatriates and residents of the northern suburbs might otherwise discard each year.
- In April 2005 we took on the larger project of clearing out a rubbish site in the heart of the slum Carcova and transforming it into a soccer pitch for children to play on.

However, our main project to date is Project Sonrisa a dental care program for the slum children of San Martin.

PROJECT SONRISA

In Argentina traditional treatment of oral diseases is costly and families of low income have little access to dental care. Argentina does offer free health services, but the absence of government investment in dental care and proper oral hygiene awareness is leading to serious oral health complications within the slum communities, often with irreversible effects.

Families from the slums are often under educated and have little or no knowledge of oral hygiene. Under-funded public health services in low-income areas offer only the possibility of extractions. Restorative care, even for children, is not an option. Thus, cavities, tooth loss, tooth decay, abscesses, pain and infection are commonplace even among the youngest of children.

Phase 1 of Project Sonrisa was launched in March 2005. Together with some help from the local authorities of the San Martin Municipality, a team of trained volunteers started dental hygiene sessions for slum children (and when possible their parents).

Today, after almost two years the dental hygiene sessions continue at a rate of about two a month. Our sessions still run entirely with volunteers and we use pedagogical methods such as music and puppets to teach children the basic rules of dental and oral hygiene. All children are registered in the program.

Due to the particular environment the children are coming from, each session is followed by back up sessions as a mean to constantly reinforce the importance of hygiene all year round. At the end of each session free toothbrushes and fluoridated toothpaste are handed out to the participants. For most of the children, it is their first toothbrush. .

We work through the slums using the soup kitchen and kindergarten network to ensure that training takes place in a safe and orderly environment and to benefit from the collaboration and support of both the teachers and local volunteers working in the kitchens. Since March 2005 to date (August 2006) Todos Juntos has distributed over 1500 toothbrushes and 1300 tubes of toothpaste to slum children and their parents.

Phase 2

After several months of moving from slum to slum the team noticed how severely damaged almost 80 per cent of the children’s’ teeth were. Most were suffering from a variety of serious problems such as bleeding gums, decayed teeth and oral infection that brushing alone, no matter how regularly, would not solve. None of these children had access to restorative dental care. We therefore set up a project proposal for a dental clinic where children registered in our program could receive free dental care.

We started negotiations in October 2005 with the Health Department of the San Martin Municipality. In March 2006, we finally signed a three-year lease with the Mr Ricardo Ivoskus, the Mayor of San Martin, for the free use on a part time basis of a small abandoned dental clinic in a public health centre outside the Carcova slum.

Thanks to extensive fundraising and our corporate sponsors, the room has been completely renovated. Electricity, heating, plumbing and a new dental chair donated by Colgate Palmolive Argentina, have all been installed. All dental supplies, additional dental equipment and the dentist salary shall be paid out of the funds raised specifically for this project.

Our target is to provide 100 consultations per month for the first year.

CONTACT US
foundation_todosjuntos@yahoo.co.uk
Mailing address: Luis Vernet 235 San Isidro 1642 Buenos Aires Argentina

Todos Juntos is registered in the United Kingdom under the “Todos Juntos Children’s Trust” Charity number 1115344.

If you are interested in helping or sponsoring Todos Juntos and live in the UK please contact:
Todos Juntos Children's Trust
Attn: Gunter Heyden (Chairman)
Spectrum House
Hillview Gardens
London NW4 2JQ
Tel Contact: 020 8266 3334
admin@todosjuntos.org.uk

For donations within the UK or Europe:
CAF BANK Ltd
Sort Code: 40.52.40
Account Name: Todos Juntos Children's Trust
Account Number: 00014172