Perkin Educational Opportunities Foundation

Description

The Amún Shéa, Center for Integrated Development, is a long-term and ambitious endeavor. In general terms, the vision is to create a quality learning center in one of the poorest areas of post-war El Salvador, as the most efficient manner to deal with the root causes of conflict and poverty.

Amún Shéa is a concentrated effort with a limited number of students. There is no inclination to take over the task of the Salvadoran Ministry of Education, but rather to build a strong working model of an improved educational system which could be copied or incorporated into the national system. Indeed, on paper the curriculum of the Educational Ministry is academically sound, although it does lack right brain hemisphere exercise and reduces history to civics. The problem is in the implementation of what is on paper, with an overstretched budget, a deficit of infrastructure and teachers that are the product of an emergency "quantity over quality" educational system.

Our goal is to assist in the formation of a group of people capable of creating their own opportunities, making their own decisions and taking responsibility for themselves and their communities.