Presentation Cantines Argentines enfantines
Arriving in Argentina in 1987, Christiane Lenquette discovered the difficult situation of the children living in shantytowns. Coming back in France in 1991, she created "Cantines Argentines Enfantines" Association.
This association based in Valergues, France, has the mission to buy food for children of 14 months to 3 years old who go to the Saint-Bernadette kindergarten of the Saint-Martin-de-Porres school, which was created a the beginning of the 1990s by a French priest, Father Bacquet. The school is located in a shantytown, in Villa Hidalgo in the north of Buenos Aires.
San-Martín-de-Porres is a catholic school that opened its doors in 1969 with temporary buildings for only 30 students. Today the school has 22 rooms and occupied about 1,000 meters squares. About 1,400 students from the surrounding area are attending the classes. About 20,000 persons live in the area, but 70 percent of them live under the poverty level. Their most elementary needs are not satisfied and their biggest needs are :
Health : undernourished, malnutrition, alcoholism, respiratory illness, insufficient number of medical centers
Environment : precarious house, overcrowding, flood zones, insalubrity, inexistence of sewer
Social and educational problems : violence, rapes and delinquency, drugs, employment instability, inexistence of social security, frequent teenagers pregnancy, many positive HIV cases censed.
http://www.cantinesargentines.com
