Build equal opportunities through technology.

The Providencia Educational Center is located in the west of Cerro de Montevideo, more specifically in the Casabó neighborhood, one of the most vulnerable areas of our country. For 25 years it has worked with a team of technicians, educators and volunteers, providing a socio-educational and promotional learning space for children and young people in the area, accompanying them in their educational path from initial education to their first work experiences.
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It currently receives 700 families daily through five educational programs: Community House (for babies from 0 to 2 years old), a Children's Club (for school-age children), a Lyceum (basic cycle), a Youth Center, and a training program for work. In addition, this year the doors of a CAIF (early childhood care center) program will be opening that will allow to attend to an urgent need in the area, which is the coverage and accompaniment of the smallest (children from 0 to 5 years old) and have an earlier impact on student development.

The creation of Matea arises as a response to two great concerns that in Providencia, as a social organization, we have been raising for a long time: on the one hand, the intention of seeking answers to the problem of youth unemployment that is exacerbated in the areas of greater social vulnerability, generating greater exclusion and increased poverty. On the other hand, the possibility of giving continuity to the work that the Providencia educational center has been developing in the community through its educational programs, generating a quality educational proposal, and the intention of achieving a new sustainability model that allows us to be less dependent on donations.
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Currently, a large percentage of the annual budget of the Providencia educational center is financed thanks to the contribution of donations from institutions and individuals. This creates a limitation that has motivated the team to work on innovative projects, seeking new ways to generate long-term sustainability, ultimately seeking to transform the financing paradigm of non-governmental social organizations.

That is why in 2016, the Providencia team began a path of reflection, research and design of new alternatives that would allow us to fulfill these purposes.