Who are we?

The history of the Casa del Niño y la Niña Santa Bernardita began in 1997, as a response to the reality of poverty and insecurity in which the children of Cornhill lived. With the support of St. Bernadette’s parish in Ireland, in August 1996, a two-story house was purchased on top of the 3 de Mayo hill to make this dream come true.

After the arduous work of renovation and refurbishment, our “Children’s Centre” was inaugurated on February 15, 1997, with Gina Yáñez de La Borda and P. Peter Byrne M.M. as sponsors.

In the first three years, children from 3 to 12 years old participated, but attendance increased from 70 children to 300 children daily, leaving the Centre very small for the immediate needs. Faced with the need to expand it, the adjoining house was purchased in 1999, and construction began in December 1999 with the financial support of the Irish government. With these expansions, the size of the house tripled, including an area specifically for psychological services, speech therapy and the Children’s Defense Desk.

In 2000 we were able to provide services in two shifts, mornings for adolescents and afternoons for children, with the participation of an average of 500 children and adolescents daily. In 2001, a space was created to organize assemblies of children and adolescents, and with their voices heard, they were protagonists in the implementation of other programs. Later, with the support of the Irish government, a carpentry, drawing and painting workshop, a kitchen and changing rooms with showers and bathrooms for the staff were built. At the same time, the construction of a reading room attached to the library began.

At the Children’s Centre, cases of abuse were detected that required specialized treatment and protection for the child from his or her aggressor, who was almost always a close relative. Thus, the idea of a Residential Home arose as a way to respond to the problem of sexual abuse that no one in civil society was attending or accompanying. The need to provide this type of service was evident, however, this project had to be postponed due to difficulties, mainly economic, until support was received from Ireland and the British Embassy.

A 600 m2 plot of land was purchased near the Children’s Centre and construction began at the beginning of 2004.

It was inaugurated on July 11, 2004, with the presence of our Irish benefactors, Mary McKnight from St. Bernadette’s parish and Maire Fitzpatrick from St. Anne’s parish, who were the sponsors.

In the library of the Children’s Centre, it was identified that many children were unable to adequately understand school content and were behind in their homework. Many of them repeated the grade, and when this became a recurrent pattern, they were no longer accepted in educational institutions, thus losing their right to education. This problem was mainly caused by economic and socioemotional factors.

Faced with this situation, we decided to intervene to support these children in overcoming their learning difficulties, creating the Psycho-pedagogical Remedial School. Initially, we implemented a support program in the Children’s Centre, which was very successful. However, we soon realized that we did not have adequate space to expand the project. Thus, the institution’s board of directors began to look for options to build a new building that could meet this growing demand.

The thought that animated us is “if it is for the benefit of the children, the conditions will arrive, which will allow us to do it”. And so it happened. After the publication of an article written by our promoter in a newsletter intended for all our benefactors, a couple from Australia responded by funding this new project. We began construction in 2006.

It was inaugurated on December 6, 2007, with the presence of the Australian sponsors, Geoff and Clare Loudon.

The fourth component of the Association was born: the Child Safeguarding Program, which promotes prevention efforts to nip child abuse in the bud. The program trains local primary schools: parents, teachers and students on child protection and the promotion of children’s human rights, and creats child protection teams, made up of parents and teachers, who will be supported to develop and implement child protection policies and procedures in their own schools.

In this way, Santa Bernardita has grown from a project of the Casa del Niño y la Niña to become a comprehensive multi-programmatic association that works for the realization of the rights of vulnerable children to a quality education, access to justice and a dignified life, free from abuse, and spaces to play as children.

Until 2016 our service in the Residential Home was exclusively for boys and girls 4 to 12 years old. But as of 2017, thanks to the support of the “Old Dart Foundation”, the home was expanded, allowing us to host teenage girls.

Due to the high demand of children with learning difficulties, in 2017, also with the support of the “Old Dart Foundation”, we purchased neighboring land and the infrastructure of the school was expanded allowing us to receive more children in need of our services.

During the pandemic, work in the areas of mental health and language development underwent a significant transformation by moving to a virtual format. This transition allowed both psychologists and speech and language therapists to continue to provide support to their patients, despite the constraints imposed by the health situation.

Online sessions offered flexibility and accessibility, allowing professionals to reach a greater number of people, including those who, for various reasons, were unable to attend face-to-face consultations. Technology became an essential tool, facilitating the connection and monitoring of patients’ progress.

A gym designed specifically for teenagers not only promotes physical health, but also plays a crucial role in the emotional and social development of young people. By encouraging healthy habits from an early age, we are investing in their future well-being.

The gymnasium was inaugurated on May 21, 2022 in the Children’s Centre

Thanks to Old Dart Foundation and Board of St. Bernadette’s, who accompanied us on this day.