How it works
> The David Mather Foundation in England
> The David Mather Foundation in Argentina
> How are the young people in Argentina identified?
>The Schools: Fey y Alegria and Dr Miguel Ragone
The David Mather Foundation in England
The David Mather Foundation is a charitable trust (often more simply referred to as a charity) registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales, number 1131333. The overarching objective, captured in the Trust Deed of the charity, is to promote the benefit of young people in Argentina through:
a) the advancement of education and training;
b) the relief of poverty; and
c) the relief of financial hardship
The David Mather Foundation in England meets its objectives by working with its Argentinean partner, the Fundación David Mather.
The David Mather Foundation in Argentina
The Fundación David Mather is a separate legal entity in Argentina. It became a registered charity in Argentina in May 2010. The aims of the Fundación David Mather are the same as those of the David Mather Foundation.
The Fundación David Mather’s primary source of income is grants received from the David Mather Foundation but it also seeks to fundraise in Argentina. Throughout this website, and when talking generally, when we refer to the Foundation, we are referring to both organisations, who are working together with a common aim.
How are the young people in Argentina identified?
During the first two years, the Foundation developed links with two schools in Salta, Argentina, Fe y Alegria and Dr Miguel Ragone. Both schools are in the poorer barrios of Salta, and we include more information on these below.
Our Locality Manager, Raul, worked with the school teachers to build up a short list of young people who met the following criteria:
• Aged 15-16
• Academically bright
• Would be unable to attend university due to financial and/or social constraints
• Were committed and enthusiastic
The trustees then selected a group of 12 young people to enter the programme, and to receive the following kinds of support from the Foundation:
• Pairing with a mentor from the local university
• Visits to university
• Additional one-to-one tuition support
• Providing a quiet place to study
• Contributing to costs of books and other study materials
Current Provision 2011-2012
As with all good projects our provsion is evolving with the evidence of our impact.
We are now aware that our strengths are in providing the career advice and support, additional tuition in core subjects, help in application and entry to university or professional training and application for scholarships.
In Salta anyone can apply for scholarships with no additional weighting for those in greatest need. As a result many less advantaged students find out about the offer too late. We have found by helping with early applications we can increase the access rate dramatically and this year only one student failed to receive a BECA. This makes a major financial contribution to the students’ situations.
We are now working with the Education Ministery to make the system more seamless. This allows us to widen our reach and offer support to a wider group of students across the city.
initially we were committing the Foundation to support the young people for the five years of their university career. What has become apparent is that once attending university the students need less support. They continue to come for advice and support when required and occasionaly use the facilities but this is adhoc rather than regular. They are also becoming the mentors of the younger students. As the long term commitment is reduced we are able to widen our support to many more students in their final year of school where the help has the greatest impact.
The Schools: Fey y Alegria and Dr Miguel Ragone
We are concentrating on two schools to start with – Fe y Alegria, in the Solidaridad neighbourhood (or ‘barrio’) and the Dr Miguel Ragone school in the Autodromo area. The barrios are very basic and consist of a mixture of shacks and corrugated iron-topped breezeblock buildings interspersed with tents made from plastic sheeting.
The Director of Fe y Alegria told us that the school has 1,500 students of all ages and have never had a student get into university and then complete the whole course. The school buildings are ten years old and in quite good condition, but they have no heating, a tiny library and poorly maintained equipment.
The second school, Dr Miguel Ragone, has over 500 students aged from 5 to 18 and though newly built in 2006, has no library and just one room of twenty computers, none of which have ever been used. The Director explained that in her 35 years of working in these neighbourhoods less than 2% of students had gone on to university.
We have included some photos of the schools and the surrounding areas below.
