Education for All
Opening Doors to Education: Ensuring Accessible Learning for Vulnerable Children
DTCare established a school in May 2021 for underprivileged children facing financial and geographical challenges in accessing education. We aimed to offer a curriculum that was easily accessible to those who could not attend public schools. Mr. Daniel Cedeño, a seasoned educator, initiated a preschool program that focused on teaching fundamental literacy and math skills.
DTCare previously operated a Home that catered to women and children. We specifically designed the home to assist single mothers in achieving stability for their families. As a result, it was an ideal location for the establishment of our Blue Garden School. Our school's primary goal is to equip young children with essential education skills that will benefit them in the future.
Why “Blue Garden”?
Why garden? DTCare initiated a school gardening and meal program at our school in Monte Lirio when we learned that several learners arrive at school hungry each day. UNICEF found that malnutrition in Panama affects 15.8% of children overall and 39% of children in indigenous areas. We decided to start a garden at the school to reduce food insecurity among the school's learners while building community in and outside the classroom. Gardens, in addition to being added food supply, offer many learning opportunities. Teachers, with the occasional help from the students, tend to the vegetable garden enabling the school to provide healthy, nutritious breakfasts and lunches for learners to combat hunger and malnutrition. Food insecurity not only causes severe suffering and has adverse effects on a child’s health and development, but hunger severely impacts learning. Undernourishment hinders a child’s ability to focus and retain information which meant we needed to curb food insecurity is critical to enabling children to learn effectively.
Poverty is a leading cause of food insecurity. In many cases, the meals children receive at school are the only whole meals they eat daily. Undernourishment is directly linked to poverty and is one of the leading causes of growth stunting prevalent in 15.8% of Panamanian children under five years old. To prevent the adverse effects of hunger and a lack of sufficient nutrition, DTCare started the school meal program. Homemade meals from fresh, organic ingredients ensure that no child is left hungry during the day. For over a year now, DTCare has been able to provide free healthy breakfasts, lunches, and snacks for all who attend our school. The school garden features a variety of essential and staple foods critical for a balanced diet, including corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans. The growing vegetable garden helps the school supplement some of the staple foods the daily breakfasts and lunches include, such as tomatoes and beans, while other foods are purchased monthly to ensure that the meals contain sufficient nutrients essential for health and development.
DTCare’s small but specialized educational team tends the garden and harvests the produce with the occasional help of some of the learners. The meals are freshly prepared daily with ingredients directly from the school vegetable garden. The benefits of the school vegetable garden are multifold:
curbing undernourishment and hunger
building community in and outside the classroom
giving children a better chance of healthy development and learning effectively
teaching children the importance of hard work and how to take care of the planet
Why blue? As Blue is usually the color that relates to elements of nature, such as water and air, it forms positive associations of peace, connection, and tranquility. Being located in the rural area of Monte Lirio, the community is surrounded by beautiful nature. With this in mind, we created our school’s logo of our children giving a world hug. DTCare hopes to instill these into the environment of our school so the learners would have a secure and steady place to learn and grow.
Pre-school Learning and Child Development
The first step towards a brighter future is receiving a quality education. Education equips children with fundamental skills to enable and empower and give children a chance at a better life. DTCare’s school in Monte Lirio, Panama, makes education accessible for children in marginalized communities who are at risk of dropping out of school permanently as a result of financial barriers, which are compounded by the economic effects of the global pandemic.
At DTCare, we believe children deserve a safe, instructive, and fun environment for learning. With an estimated 40 children coming to school every day and the Education Program expanding so rapidly, in February of 2022 DTCare recruited a second educator, Heidy Zapata to teach the pre-school-aged group of children. Children are sorted into either the pre-school or elementary class based on their literacy level and age. Classes focus on early childhood development, fundamental literacy skills development, and an introduction to English language learning.
Now the Blue Garden School has grown so much that we have two full-time teachers and one part-time teacher that help the children learn multiple subjects a day. Their main curriculum has math, Spanish language arts, English, science, and nutrition. In addition, Daniel and the teachers are able to take them on field trips into town to learn about what is going on in their own community.
MEDUCA-aligned Curriculum and Computer Literacy
DTCare is working alongside public schools in the region to ensure that learners follow a MEDUCA (Panama Education Department) aligned curriculum. Through a multi-disciplined approach, children learn core subjects, including reading, spelling, and math. DTCare also provides children with access to technological resources to facilitate the learning and understanding of core subjects. The children of the DTCare Blue Garden school attend an Infoplaza session every Thursday of each week, where they learn the parts of the computer, how to type, and how to manage the equipment. Introducing youth to technology not only equips them better for the modern world but exercises on digital apps reinforce writing, reading, and math skills while audiobooks allow children to experience literature and literacy skills development while they are still learning to read and write proficiently with Cedeño’s instruction and guidance. Cedeño employs a peer-to-peer instruction style in his multi-age classes, where older children serve as examples and leaders to the younger group.
Meet the Teachers
Thanks to our highly-trained and dedicated teaching staff, every child that comes to our school gets the same free access to quality education. They go above and beyond to engage learners in lessons while fostering their development and well-being. Our teachers are committed to building a solid educational foundation for the learners that will serve as a stepping stone toward more opportunity and a better life.
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Daniel Cedeno is the Head of DTCare’s Panama Operations in the country, and his expertise lies in multidisciplinary teaching for different age groups, an integral part of DTCare's well-rounded education program. Cedeno’s years of experience and know-how about educating children of different ages from underprivileged backgrounds ensures that our school program caters to the specific learning needs of a diverse group of learners. Daniel is dedicated to creating a wholesome and inclusive learning environment for children of various ages coming from challenging backgrounds, and he liaises with local schools to ensure that the children stay on track with the national curriculum.
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Heidi was our first additional hire as a teacher to expand our program to include preschool education. She was hired in February of 2022 and has been the head preschool teacher since. She does a great job teaching our youngest learners about the fundamental skills needed for elementary education.
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In August 2022, Celia was hired to work with our older students, ages 8 to 14, in all subjects, including natural and social sciences, mathematics, religion, Spanish, Art, and Physical Education. She works hard to get the students up to the national standard level of learning.
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Madelis started working part-time at the Blue Garden School in July 2022. She teaches beginner English and language lessons to both elementary and preschool-level students while also doing some basic administrative tasks. In addition, she also assists the teachers with their English.
Branching Out for Mental Health
Since November of 2022, DTCare has been operating accessible art therapy mental health programs to aid Ukraine during the ongoing Russian Invasion. Since starting these programs, we have seen profound success in the communities that we work in, especially when working with women and children affected by trauma. In April of 2023, DTCare had the opportunity to partner with Premier Arts Collective and Casa de Creatividad art therapist Anita Yeh Norrie to train our Panama teachers to run open studio sessions with our students at the Jardin Azul school. They are currently attending weekly sessions by Zoom to learn how to properly facilitate an art therapy open studio session.
Although DTCare is very passionate about art therapy, this is not our first initiative to provide better mental health resources at our Blue Garden School. In the summer of 2022, DTCare hired Francelis Fuentes, a licensed child psychologist, to meet with the kids twice a week for nine months. She worked with the children individually to give each child direct attention and support. Our goal is to enact lasting mental health support and care for the Monte Lirio community and all communities we work in to establish a positive generational change.
Public School Sponsorship: DTCare Sponsors Over 60 School Children in Rural Panama
For the last two years, DTCare has had the privilege of sponsoring more than 60 children to attend the local public elementary school with the help of our generous donors. Although the school itself is free, registration fees and uniforms can be prohibitively expensive for many families in rural Panama struggling to make ends meet, especially if they have multiple children in need. At DTCare, we remain committed to ensuring that all children in the Monte Lirio community have access to the educational opportunities they deserve.
We believe in maximizing the impact of every dollar we contribute to this program. That's why we have chosen to work in partnership with local educational organizations rather than in competition with them. By collaborating with a nearby public school, we have been able to help bridge the gap in accessible education for these deserving children. The school's principal personally selects each child who receives sponsorship to ensure the funds go where they are genuinely needed. Through this initiative, many children have been able to stay on track with their studies and experience the transformative power of education. We are endlessly grateful to our donors and partners for their invaluable support in making this sponsorship possible!
