CES Waldorf

CES Waldorf (Corporación Educativa y Social Waldorf) is a non-profit foundation working in Ciudad Bolivar, a socially extremely difficult, criminal and vulnerable neighbourhood in the south of Bogotá, Colombia (South America) which is marked by poverty and any kind of violence. CES Waldorf takes care of children and young people and their families with help of a variety of educational programs. CES Waldorf bases its labour on the Waldorf pedagogy, which seeks to promote for the children and their families a personal development and growth under descent life conditions, using art as important educational tool in its work. Children, adolescences and parents learn alternative ways to deal with their dramatic life situation.

Up to date, CES Waldorf supports more than 70 kindergardeners and approximately 150 adolescences with their 800 families respectively.

CES Waldorf emphases its social humanistic labour on the consequences of violence: resignation, depression, social deprivation and vulnerability to conflict and promotes the development of interpersonal relationships and social skills. With the help of a profesional team, composed by different social workers, teachers, doctors and therapists, the attended children and their families search for an alternative solution to their daily life problems, which are the result of neglect and experienced violence.

Other aspects of the work of the CES Waldorf are:

• Precautionary measures against abuse and mistreatment • Therapeutic support in concrete crisis situations • Legal assistance • Promotion of better neighbourhood relations and solidarity within the community organization • Adult education, parental schools and vocational guidance for young people.

The founder is a german business man who has always had social responsebility and sustainability in his mind. For more than 40 years he has been doing social projects in Columbia until he founded his own. Since 2009 he cannot afford to finance the project all by himself anymore and is dependent on external fundings.