The Fundacion in times of covid

October 2020 It all started with a crazy idea and the first participation of 24 volunteers from all generations to support the Fundacion Emmanuel. In 2019, there were even more of us running. In 2020, in the fall, we really want to expand the group. With the extra training time during the summer, we hope to achieve this with all of you!

Anne and the very beginnings of the Fundación

First meetings in Belgium In 1964, Anne Vandenbroucke was a medical student at the University of Louvain. She is also a member of CPM ("Chers Petits Ménages"), a group of recently married students who meet once a month. At the same time, the couple Luis-Maria and María Elvira arrive in Belgium to study at the University of Louvain and they quickly take part in the meetings of the CPM. Anne and the other members of the group become friends with Luis-Maria and María Elvira. The Argentinian couple returned to their country in 1967, but they kept in touch with greetings and postcards (yes, the internet did not exist at the time!). Memories are hazy for Anne but she remembers that at the end of the 1980s, Christiane de Raedt, former director of Shalom (a hostel for university students in Leuven) and great friend of María Elvira, brought together members of Shalom, members of the CPM and members of the university community. Moral and financial support was launched to support the project of María Elvira and Luis Maria and henceforth to help Argentinian children in difficulty. Evolution of the project The initial project on sport in Argentina was to welcome children in difficulty, from families in precarious situations who cannot guarantee physical, emotional or psychological security for their children. This is how the couple welcomed 7 children. A few years later, concerned about the poverty of children and families living in the slums of La Plata (Buenos-Aires), they created the "Tia Kiki" Center for children and a training center for parents. The objective has evolved and is also to help families in the education of their children so that each child can flourish with his parents and his family. The Fundación Emmanuel project has grown in order to accommodate more children. Christiane de Raedt became the first president of the Fundación Emmanuel. As Christiane was nicknamed Kiki, the "Tia Kiki" center bears her name. An ever-growing team The small support team is getting into action in Belgium to raise funds. “At the beginning,” says Anne, “we enthusiastically organized second-hand sales, bridge competitions, concerts and plays, etc. Today the multigenerational team is led by David Raemdonck van Megrode and organizes Christmas tree sales, participates in the 20 km of Brussels and plans other fundraising activities in order to continue the Belgian-Argentinian partnership started at the end of the 60s. And Anne is still active in this wonderful friendship between Belgium and Argentina.

20 km from Brussels

March 2020 We are an ASBL founded in 1985 with the aim of helping families living in extremely precarious conditions, which do not allow them to meet their basic needs. In order to help them, several action models have been put in place:. Opening and maintenance of the "Tia Kiki" center, working daily with many families in difficulty (continuing education for adults, free nursery, medical prevention, school support, daily meals, awareness of non-violence among adolescents, etc.). Support for families in difficulty present throughout the province of Buenos Aires. Establishment of a model of solidarity action, unprecedented in Argentina: work with volunteer host families trained to preserve family ties. Today, the Emmanuel Foundation helps more than a hundred families on a daily basis.

The story between Belgium and Argentina continues

September 2019 David Raemdonck, currently president of the Belgian branch of Fundacion Emmanuel, returns from Argentina swollen with admiration and determined to strengthen Belgian-Argentine cooperation. "Having some family members living in Argentina since the 1960s, I have visited this country several times since I was a child" says David Raemdonck. "Knowing the country and having been sensitized by its issues, it was relatively natural to be touched by the Fundacion Emmanuel when I met its founders." "After visiting Fundacion over 10 years ago, my wife Geraldine and I decided to actively join the Fundacion Emmanuel team in Belgium." "On February 28, 2019, Candelaria and Maria Virginia from the board of directors of FE picked me up in Buenos-Aires and traveled together to Colonia Urquiza. I was very happy to meet these 2 dynamic young women who gave me fresh news from the Fundacion." "Arrived there, I was amazed at the progress Fundacion Emmanuel had made since my last visit in 2013. The kids looked even happier and all the team members more enthusiastic. The kids looked even happier and everyone on the team more enthusiastic. Of course, it was a beautiful Argentinian summer day with bright sunshine but we felt there was real pride in being part of a growing community made up of happy children and a team of well organized educators" “After a tour in the different buildings I have encountered familiar faces and others. I gave a hand to help with the final preparations before the official inauguration of the new building for Club Colonia Urquiza on the grounds of the Fundacion Emmanuel" "Thanks to the determination of the people and the help of local initiatives , the Fundacion Emmanuel has transformed an old hangar into a wonderful space intended to accommodate the children of the Fundacion and the local community to practice different sports, including softball ”. "The next day, I collaborated with Monica, Candelaria, Maria Virginia and Ramiro in the office of the Fundacion in Buenos-Aires. Here too, beyond the figures and real facts of the daily administration of the Fundacion Emmanuel, I could feel the strength of their enthusiasm." "Of course some of this stimulating energy has returned with me to Belgium and I am more convinced than ever that our help from Belgium is making a difference, so let's keep going! They so deserve it !

What an extraordinary experience!

March 2019 For five months, Valentine Dehem lived and worked at the Fundación Emmanuel. As she recounts in her story, this unique experience was simply unforgettable. “After my university studies in psychology, I wanted to continue my training abroad. I chose Argentina because I had already stayed there for a full year as part of an exchange program after my last year of high school. I was then charmed by the hospitality of the Argentines and returning there helped me to form myself in the field of childhood and the family. After researching the Internet, I contacted the Fundación Emmanuel. I was not only greeted to lend a hand, but also offered accommodation on site. I arrived at the Fundación on a Saturday and was greeted by the sole keeper of the estate. The Fundación is set up in the middle of greenhouses, far from the city. Puzzled, I wondered if this place was actually going to be filled with children. On Monday, the magic happened ... Children and families from all over arrived and dropped off their"niños". The very welcoming team showed me around the buildings. This place which seemed so deserted one day, became so animated the next day! I was amazed by all these smiling faces, which at first glance did not seem to have any particular difficulty in their life. At the Fundación, children come to do their homework but also to participate in various activities (yoga, music, theater, plastic arts, ...) through which they learn to grow and flourish. A crèche also welcomes children in the morning. My role as a psychologist consisted in participating in educational activities with the children but above all in observing their behavior. If a behavior seemed strange to me or caught my attention (for example: a child who does not eat, who does not play, ...) I inform the team. If necessary, we conducted interviews with the child's parents to gain a better understanding of the situation of the child and his family, and how the team could help them. This is how little by little, through everyday life and sometimes a visit to their family, I discovered a disturbing reality ... These children and these families actually lived in tiny houses, rather huts, and ate and slept on the floor. These huts belong to the owners of the large greenhouses. They house these families in exchange for their labor harvesting vegetables. While the parents are working, the children are alone at home, the older ones cook for the younger ones. Sometimes there are accidents ... If they do not stay at home alone, their parents are taken to work in greenhouses where a lot of pesticides are used. By discovering this reality, I understood that the Fundación was much more than a place of extracurricular activities or help with homework. It is not a luxury for these children to go to the Fundación but a vital necessity. The Fundación is a place of welcome, a full-fledged home, which allows children to be children: to play like a child, to laugh like a child, ... to be taken care of. It is a bubble of oxygen, both physical and psychological, for all these children who live in very difficult conditions and have responsibilities which are not those of their age ”. Valentine's suggestion If you wish to carry out your training abroad by working as a volunteer at the Fundación Emmanuel, check with the services of your university who can help you put together a file and support your application and your offer of services to the Fundación.

Face-to-face between Luis Maria & Natacha Nicora

October 2018 Extract Papa, when did the idea for the Fundacion emerge? The idea for the Fundacion started to simmer during our stay in Belgium in the 1960s. Maria Elvira and I met there. We both had a background as social workers before. Your mother had a university education in educational psychology and at the same time she was teaching in a "re-education institute" with girls aged 6 to 12 who had been placed there by the juvenile courts. They came mainly from poor families or whose parents had entrusted them to the judge. Personally, I think it all started in high school. There is a word that struck me when the professor of Zoonosis (animal reproduction) said: "PALATABILIDAD". This term referred to the variety of nutrients needed by animals. If their needs and tastes weren't met, they just weren't eating. I remember ... I jumped off my bench and asked, "How come the variety of foods is so much of a concern to us as we let the kids eat whatever they find in the garbage or what? a few years later, I worked in a disadvantaged neighborhood and we created, among other things, a school in Belgian train cars ... and since then, Belgium has been with us everywhere! Was your feeling when the children from Burgos arrived at our house? The arrival was chaotic with all these children! At that time, we did not even have a car to pick them up. I think Antonia's gaze , the children's biological mother, was the first testimony that we were doing it right. She looked confident that they would grow up in a better environment. When you look at what you and the Fundacion have accomplished, what a How do you feel? It's funny that you ask me that now that I put a foot in old age. I look back and see hope, children and family growing up and I feel happy for what life has given me. I am so lucky to have "landed" in Belgium and to have found Maria Elvira, your mother, on my way. At the very beginning, we had in common a similar life project which was enriched so much by our meetings and our four daughters. Mario, one of the 7 children from Burgos, was hungry when he was little and I am so proud to see him today at the head of a large restaurant kitchen. I see improvements every day. I had the chance to share these wonderful moments with Maria Elvira, with my children and with all the supporters of the Fundacion Emmanuel. All of our children are doing well today and our work continues through generations to come.

Club Colonia Urquiza

January 2018
For several years, the children and young people of Colonia Urquiza dreamed of having a place where social, cultural and sporting activities would be accessible to the whole community.

Most of the Colonia Urquiza community could not afford a private club. Educators, young students and families then decided to set up an organizing team and define the project with a concrete work plan, and thus realize their dream. They immediately got to work with the support of a team from the Fundación Emmanuel.

The first stage of the project is underway… The Fundacion has made a plot of land available for Club Colonia Urquiza to build a softball field.

With a lot of effort and enthusiasm, they started the construction of the playing field. It is not yet finished, but the conditions to start training and launch the first mixed matches were in place.

The nursery is again in place at Tia Kiki

November 2017

The city has very few public nurseries and those that do exist are very far from Colonia Urquiza. It therefore seemed natural to develop a project around the reopening of a nursery for toddlers aged 45 days to 3 years.

This will mainly allow:

- Many children avoid being left alone at home or with minimal supervision, which is a real danger at such an early age (two children were found dead after a fire last winter). The second option for most parents who work in the area is to take them to fields and greenhouses where they come into direct contact with many pesticides. A study proves that children left to fend for themselves suffer from delays and dysfunctions.

- Foster the development of toddlers by paying particular attention to the development of their motor skills, their curiosity and their socialization to enable them to strengthen family and community ties.


- Allow teenage mothers to continue their studies while taking care of their newborn during school hours.

- Inform and give families a better understanding of early childhood development and needs and consolidate their parenting role in this process.

- Create a work plan to understand the specific situations of toddlers and their families and provide individualized solutions.

- Cooperate with local institutions such as schools, health centers, .....

Let's talk about the rights of the child

The campaign "Hagamos un trato por el buen trato" aims to promote non-violence against children and adolescents.

With the support of Unesco and BICE, the Fundacion Emmanuel organized and once again hosted (previous edition in 2013) a regional camp to set up a public awareness campaign on the situation of children and adolescents and violence daily inflicted on them.

Young adolescents from Paraguay, Peru and Argentina worked on a common message to encourage attitudes and behaviors respectful of their dignity and integrity.

Workshops will now be organized in each community of the participating countries to reinforce the desire for better relations between adults and young people where violence has no place.

The campaign will be evaluated later with children, adolescents and adult referrals.