Programs

Whole Child International’s programs reflect and advance our vision of improving outcomes for institutionalized children by applying the most advanced knowledge in childcare to orphanages and other under-resourced settings, providing the training needed to help existing orphanage staff meet the basic emotional needs of the children in their care. Currently, in most institutions across the world, these needs are rarely understood let alone addressed.

Managua, Nicaragua
In December 2007, we completed our first full-scale model intervention at El Divino Niño children’s home in Managua, Nicaragua. El Divino Niño, a large institutional home for orphaned, abused, and abandoned children under age six, is home to 96 children and has been an ideal location for this initial pilot program. Since then we have scaled up our program to five institutions overall, and have begun building the apparatus that will allow us to reach all of Nicaragua's 84 institutions. This infrastructure includes the stationing of our first full-time, two-person training team in Managua, the establishment of a residential office in the city, and the recruitment and hire of our first three local apprentice trainers. These trainers will form the core of our program of internal capacity for Nicaragua, and their number is expected to reach a total of 14 over the next several years.

The program’s effectiveness is being evaluated by the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Child Development.The implementation is a collaboration between Whole Child International and two of its partners, WestEd’s Center for Child and Family Studies, and the University of California, Davis Center for Excellence in Child Development. The government of Nicaragua is participating as an active partner in this intervention.

In August 2006, the University of Pittsburgh team began the process of collecting baseline data to establish the foundation for its independent evaluation. The site intervention began in September, starting with administrative training. Please see our initial "Notes from the Field" entry for a brief portrait of the pilot program in Nicaragua, and check the Notes for updates as they become available.

San Salvador, El Salvador
As we have reported in the Notes from the Field, we formally launched our program in El Salvador in October 2008. We have begun our work in three institutions in greater San Salvador, and expect to learn a great deal from this new challenge. Please return to our site in the coming months as we report on our work in El Salvador, and we hope you will consider making a donation to help us expand our reach as quickly and effectively as possible.

Learn more