Organizations wishing to support and partner with Cabo Verde Children project should submit an overview and mission statement of the organization and a brief statement on how it benefits the children of Cabo Verde around the world.

ACRIDES - Association of Disadvantaged Children
Praia, Cabo Verde
Lourença Tavares, President

ACRIDES – Association for Disadvantaged Children- is a Cape Verdean organization committed to improving the quality of life for children in difficult living situations. ACRIDES aims to obtain financial, human and material assistance from different entities that are both involved in development and interested in reinforcing its institutional and planning capacities, its projects and its general development.
ACRIDES is a non-governmental organization, with a minimal budget and autonomous administration and financial status. It was recognized and its statutes were published in the Official Bulletin No. 18, II Series, March 4, 1998.

BRIEF HISTORY OF ACRIDES
ACRIDES was established on March 24, 1998 after a long period of reflection, by a group of 15 members. ACRIDES characterizes itself as an intermediary institution of assistance and education for development. As its name states, its services are directed towards disadvantaged children, primarily from urban environments.

ACRIDES has dispensed moral, material, and technical assistance to an innumerable amount of children and has contributed in a concrete way towards the protection and support of 50 children. In addition, ACRIDES has executed a series of research activities that look at the promotion of children’s rights. ACRIDES feels that these are rights that should be known by their respective families and communities, and then obligations that should be fulfilled.

Foundation of ACRIDES was an outcome of several communities’ demand for social assistance. Many members of these particular communities were either desperately in need of social services, or felt that not all needs were being met. As a result, ACRIDES was created, committed to providing these communities with the necessary technical aid to meet the remainder of their needs.

In terms of contributions, ACRIDES is committed to the promotion and realization of education in many forms. More specifically, ACRIDES strives to prepare children in their fight for well being. It does so by means of animated and informative activities for youth, conferences and reflective panel for adults, and financial assistance for both. It assists the children of Cape Verde in finding a resolution to those problems that affect them most directly, while using values and principles of social solidarity, cooperation and mutual support as its base.

The principle objectives of ACRIDES:
• Encouraging initiatives of solidarity and of joint social action in the fight against poverty and AIDS in children and adolescents;
• Elaborating educative actions for development in the areas of economy, social well-being, health, literacy, technical and professional training, pre-school teaching, etc.;
• Participating in initiatives to protect social environments by making children more sensitive to problems in this area;
• Giving dynamic to and participating in actions to protect the family by promoting health in general and paying particular attention to the health of disadvantaged children; and
• Protecting children and contributing to their social and professional development.

Areas of Intervention for ACRIDES
• Education for development: This includes animated activities, information and preparation/training (technical, professional, literacy and pre-school teaching);
• Social Economy: This area covers family protection, the promotion of children’s health and actions of social and professional protection; and
• Affirmation and internalization of the rights and obligations of children within the family and the community.

Criteria of Eligibility
ACRIDES is committed, within the possibility that its resources permit, to helping children that are very poor, orphans, abandoned, and living in the street.

Some Specific Actions Taking by ACRIDES
The following list includes some (but not all) of the specific actions that ACRIDES has proudly advanced or is still advancing:
• Aiding in the provision of school materials for 140 students in the elementary school;
• Assisting in the financing of public transport (outgrowth of “free transit”) for 50 students that attend various high schools in Praia;
• Providing necessary assistance for mal-nourished children to obtain medication and nutrients;
• Purchasing candies so that a mother of a child assisted by ACRIDES could maintain a small commercial retail stand, and monetarily aiding in the payment of this mother’s rent for her housing;
• Aiding mothers of children with disabilities in the development of small commercial activities;
• Providing workshops for pre-school teachers on working with children with special needs;
• Providing training sessions for youth on volunteering and then using these volunteers to advance various projects;
• Putting on a “Week of the Child” summer camp that involved 210 children in 2002 and 2 summer camps, each involving 150 children, in 2003;
• Putting on a “Christmas for Children” including about 300 children.

Origins of Financial Contributions
The financing of ACRIDES’ activities is provided by:
• Shares from its members;
• The execution of solidarity campaigns;
• The organization of galas;
• Financial aid from local and national entities and from international institutions with representation in Cape Verde.