Networks for everyone.

Networks for everyone: connected to reality is a program, which seeks that vulnerable children and adolescents can access to electronic devices and data plans, in order to guarantee their right to education in the face of the health crisis produced by Covid 19. At the same time, it seeks to accompany the beneficiaries of the program through psychosocial monitoring against the appropriate use of technologies, thus seeking to minimize any type of risk that may exist in the network.

Networks for everyone: connected to reality is a program, which seeks that vulnerable children and adolescents can access to electronic devices and data plans, in order to guarantee their right to education in the face of the health crisis produced by Covid 19. At the same time, it seeks to accompany the beneficiaries of the program through psychosocial monitoring against the appropriate use of technologies, thus seeking to minimize any type of risk that may exist in the network.

By donating digital kits so that vulnerable children and their families can have internet and mobile phone access, and the technological tools necessary to use these services. Thus, children will be able to attend virtual lessons and exercise their right to education during the sanitary emergency and the subsequent recovery period.

Aditionally, the Fundation bring a training in digital and techonological capabilites, to guarantee that the benefitiaries will make the most of the resources delivered. In the same way, permanent psychosocial support is offered, in order to prevent any type of risk and / or abuse that children, adolescents and their families may face through digital media.

The Networks for Everyone program has planned its investment in 5 towns in Bogotá and 2 communes in Soacha, where there are greater social problems associated with poverty, vulnerability and social marginalization. Similarly, the localities with the greatest number of children and adolescents are prioritized and that, due to their socioeconomic contexts, require special attention and implementation of social programs:

• •Bolivar City.
• •Usme.
• •San Cristobal.
• •La Candelaria.
• The Martyrs.
• Communes 2 and 3 of Soacha.

Expected duration: Although the program was born due to the need of children and adolescents to continue with their educational projects from a distance education, due to the health contingency, the San Antonio Foundation recognizes the existence of the existing digital divide since before the pandemic, as a problem of necessary attention in Colombia, so to date it is sought and plans to continue this program without contemplating a specific duration of it.

Estimated start date: The San Antonio Foundation was a pioneer in this type of initiative in Colombia, starting the program from the beginning of the health emergency in the country, in March 2020, when it began with the project approach and the search for resources, to start the delivery of the first digital kits in May of that same year.           

Estimated completion date: The Networks for Everyone Program does not have an estimated completion date. However, every year an evaluation process is carried out to define improvement actions and adjustments that seek to fulfill the objectives of this.

BENEFICIARY POPULATION

Direct beneficiaries: By 2021, it is intended to benefit 825 children and adolescents, of which 280, in addition to receiving a sim with minutes and data for their use, will have an electronic device as a loan with bailment. However, according to the commitment to the program and use that they make of the digital kit, the San Antonio Foundation will evaluate the possibility of granting these devices permanently to families.

Indirect Beneficiaries: It is estimated that 2,475 people may indirectly benefit, corresponding to the families or household members of the direct beneficiaries.

According to the characterization of the beneficiary population of the San Antonio Foundation programs, it is identified that the children and adolescents who are beneficiaries of the “Networks for Everyone” program share a series of socioeconomic characteristics that are of great relevance to mention.

First, household income is, in most cases, below the Colombian minimum wage gap, which for 2020 was 229 USD. In this regard, it is important to highlight that 44.1% of the households of the project participants do not reach the monthly income cataloged as minimum to guarantee basic needs that allow their members to lead a decent life. However, these households are not classified as poor according to the poverty line established by DANE.

Of greater concern is that 12.2% of households have income significantly lower than the minimum wage, being classified as poor according to said poverty line, and 8.4% of households with monthly income below the extreme poverty or indigence line.

In total, it is possible to ensure that at least 64.7% of the participants' households have incomes below the minimum wage, with the previously mentioned nuances of severity, placing them in a vulnerable situation from an economic perspective. This has the direct effect on children and adolescents of the increase in other vulnerabilities closely related to the economic income of the household, for example: vulnerability to not having a good state of health, vulnerability to not being educated, environmental and natural vulnerability, among others.

On the other hand, the presence of 35.1% of the population that has a monthly income above the minimum wage stands out, which does not mean that these households are exempt from the vulnerabilities mentioned above, however, it allows an approximation to the priorities of work from an institutional perspective. Related to the level of income, it is important to consider the percentage of ownership or property over the dwelling of the households.

In Bogota, Colombia, about half of the households live in rent (46.8%), mainly in strata 1, 2 and 3. This situation can be exemplified in the data corresponding to the target population, since 78.6% of the families they live in lease. This is mainly due to the limited payment capacity of households, high housing prices, the limited supply of both new and used housing in the market, among others. As a consequence, we see the increase in self-construction processes as a mechanism for families to access a home, which, in many cases, does not have sufficient habitability conditions for a dignified life of its inhabitants.

This situation is a subject of main interest since the low conditions of habitability result in a factor of vulnerability for the children and adolescents who make up the household. Some problems such as overcrowding, the need to share bedrooms and even a bed with other family members, the lack of spaces for academic and school development, among others, are just some examples.

Now, regarding home public services, it must be said that the following are considered essential: aqueduct, sewerage, toilet, electricity, and fuel gas distribution. However, there are areas in the city where there is not full coverage of these services. This situation is mainly due to informal urbanization processes that advance rapidly before public, private, and mixed companies can develop the necessary infrastructure for the provision. Additionally, there are many factors that fuel informality in the city and prevent this phenomenon from being contained. One of them has to do with migratory flows, with a predominance towards the Venezuelan population today. The lack of coverage of home public services mentioned is visible in the population of beneficiaries of the program according to the information in the following graph.

The service that presents the highest percentage of absence in homes is natural gas with 7.8%, followed by sewerage service with 4.2%, and finally the aqueduct service with 1.2%. Cleaning services / garbage collection, and electricity reflect minimal percentages with respect to households that do not have access. Although none of the data presented shows a significant predominance in the absence of home public services, the mere fact that there are households within the target population that do not have access to one or more of the home public services considered essential, It implies the presence of structural access barriers to the enjoyment of certain Rights associated with a dignified life. The situation that generates the greatest concern, based on the data presented, is access to the aqueduct service (4.2% of households do not have access to the service), since this is necessary to supply the most vital activities of the human being and its absence means a detriment to the well-being and quality of life of those who do not have full and constant access to it.

In this context, children and adolescents are structurally and differentially affected by the lack of access and coverage to the different home public services, having as long-term consequences, the disadvantage to access higher education, the difficulty to structure their projects life, and feeding the cycles of poverty in the city and the country.

Internet access can also be a decisive factor in overcoming social inequalities. The internet service arrived in Colombia at the beginning of the 90s and began to be distributed in the second half of 1994, access to this service continues to be limited in the Colombian population, where it is identified that only 69% of the Colombian population has access to the Internet. It is related that for every 100 inhabitants only 15, 22% have access to fixed internet, while for every 100 inhabitants 60.3% have access to mobile internet in Colombia.

During 2020, through the Networks for Everyone Program, the San Antonio Foundation managed to have an impact of 1,472 people. However, as an organization we have identified that the needs regarding to the access to technology and the right to education are still latent in a large majority of households that are in the Foundation's area of intervention. Even the situation has been mainly affected, since due to the economic crisis that the country has faced because of the pandemic, many families have reduced their economic income, which has affected their ability to acquire technological equipment and connectivity services.

That is why by 2021, the Foundation has proposed the delivery of 825 digital kits, indirectly benefiting 2,471 people from the most vulnerable areas of the city of Bogota and the municipality of Soacha in Colombia.