CAPTA which is Capacitacion para el Trabajo ( The ability to work) is a program at Casco Antiguo, Panama that is changing the lives of underprivileged natives. Julia Sanchez is a woman in Panama that was living on 5 dollars a day with a family of four children to support. When she registered at CAPTA, they provided her with hotel training that lead to a steady job in a hotel in her home town. This opportunity changed her life, because now she is able to not only support her four children, but she has new aspirations to learn English, get a career and move into a better home.
CAPTA is one of many community programs that offer people in struggling neighborhoods, a way to improve their life. CAPTA has already trained 60 women, and is continuously growing. The foundations director’s main achievement is to break the negative and domestic image women have of themselves, and realize that they have the opportunities to grow as socially employable.
Casco Antiguo is a city in Panama that is a tourist attraction, but it suffers from gentrification, poverty, lack of education and a paternalistic culture that is inherited from the military days where food was given away in exchange for votes. With programs such as CAPTA, this cycle is broken, and voices of hope will be heard. The city hopes to spread its opportunities all over Panama, so that together they can build stronger communities and fight poverty.
I think this is a wonderful opportunity, not only for women, but for people who have families to support and barely have enough food on the table. These people not only can make ends meet, but they achieve hope that will better their lives more than ever.
1 comment:
I think programs like this are essential to people who need help. I think a lot of people think that women such as her in the story just dont want to do the work. With programs like this her and others now have the option to obtain more skills, thus leading to better jobs.
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