Who We Are


1. 100 Cycles of workshops for the Promotion of Sexual and reproductive Health and the prevention of unwanted pregnancy with adolescents. Our institution was selected through a bidding from the “Infancia y Familia” Program of the Ministry of Social Development and International Development Bank, 2005.

2. The Youth Initiative: Developing Entrepreneurial Citizenship. A bi-national young Leadership development Program in Argentina and Uruguay. The Youth Initiative seeks to turn volunteering into a strategic opportunity for poor young people to become strongly committed citizens (through the incorporation of values), entrepreneurs in the local community (by promoting new attitudes), and protagonists in social initiatives (experiencing a project from start to finish). It is a fully structured participatory educational process in which young people design, manage and implement social projects based on prior diagnosis of local social needs, building innovative partnerships with the business sector and communitarian organizations for improving the quality of life of the whole community. We have worked in 10 cities in Uruguay and Argentina with more than 250.000 beneficiaries in 5 years. Since 2000, The Youth Initiative has been honored with the following distinctions:

· In 2005 The Youth Initiative was selected in the first round of CEPAL contest “Experiences in Social Innovation”, among 1600 other projects; we share this privilege with other 99 projects in Latin America.
· Awarded in the regional World’s Bank Development Market Place, Buenos Aires, 2005. 100 projects were selected from a total of 2700.
· First prize in the international contest AIDIS FREPLATA (GEF), Montevideo, Buenos Aires, November 2003.
· On International Volunteers' Day 2001, the program was awarded "Youth Volunteer Entrepreneurship”.
· In 2001, The Youth Initiative was selected Finalist of The World Bank’s Development Marketplace competition for innovative proposals to fight global poverty.

3. The Youth Initiative for Inclusion. This Program involves disabled and non-disabled adolescents and focuses on the school system to promote inclusionary practices among students and society in general. Supported by the World Bank and AVINA, it is being carried out in three uruguayan cities.

4. Project for the tobacco prevention. Iniciativa Latinoamerica is working with the Education Development Center to adapt an official WHO´s tobacco prevention program for adolescents in Uruguayan school settings. Through the curriculum activities, students learn to challenge the tobacco industry, be advocates for tobacco-free policies in their schools, and advocate for local solutions to the tobacco epidemic through the International Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) supported by strong national plans of action. This project will offer Uruguayan public school adolescents (ages 12-15) and teachers the opportunity to be protagonists in health promotion with their peers and communities with a focus on prevention of the consumption of tobacco products. We will interactively adapt the curriculum developed and validated by EDC for WHO to the socio-cultural reality in 6 schools in Uruguay. We will provide the teachers and trainers with a variety of resources including didactic tools and methodologies for the duplication of the work as part of a network. The proposed project builds on existing health and environmental education strategies and expands the ownership of its principles and actions across the education community. In addition, the project will test and validate methods and materials that could be used in other countries in the region and create a network of teachers and students who can speak out in favor of the benefits of tobacco free environments.

5. Binational Program "Move for the environment", winner of the international contest of the Citizenship Found – Regional Project of the Guaraní Aquifer Integrated System (SAG-OAS). Education of 200 adolescents about the importance of sweet water reservoirs and their environmental relevance. Four environmental communication projects developed and executed by young people and a didactic game created and tested to work the theme in educative centres. Uruguay and Argentina, 2005.

6. Training course for Sexual and Reproductive Health Agents. Sixty nine adolescents were trained. Our institution was selected through a bidding from the “Infancia y Familia” Program of the Ministry of Social Development and Inter-american Development Bank, 2005.

7. “Pintó Ciudarse” project. Youth leadership for the prevention of HIV-AIDS: building Uruguay’s public Agenda. This project’s target population was 230 young people and 200 social and political leaders from all over the country. Project coordinated by Iniciativa Latinoamericana, YMCA and UNICEF, 2004 – 2005.

8. Local Development. SOCAF: Service of Orientation to the families in the social network. Promotion of citizen participation in local development projects. With aproximately 100.000 direct and indirect beneficiaries in 4 neighborhoods in the city of Montevideo and Toledo City in Canelones. Our institution was selected through a bidding of the Inter-American Development Bank with Uruguayan government.