Consciente is an initiative for high-quality education for all which has been active in the department of Morazán, El Salvador since 2012. Our activities are coordinated by young people from El Salvador, financed by a Swiss association and actively supported by numerous local and international volunteers. In our view, a good and accessible education enables young people to take their future and that of their communities into their own hands. Education is thus an indispensable building block of a sustainable bottom-up development process.
Consciente is one of the first Swiss organizations to consistently pursue an evidence-based approach in its project work. That is, we first conduct a trial where new projects are carefully evaluated using scientific methods. In this way we make sure that our work actually achieves the desired results.
Consciente is committed to equal opportunities in access to education and to improving the quality of education. Education enables young people to take their future into their own hands and improve their living conditions through their own efforts.
Consciente is active in the department of Morazán in the north-east of El Salvador. The region is characterized by widespread poverty and particularly low levels of educational attainment.
Our projects are coordinated by young people in El Salvador, financed a by a Swiss association and supported by various local and international volunteers.
Our work is characterized by a great deal of voluntary commitment and a strong focus on scientific evidence.
Educational Innovation Program
The CAL-IMPACT (Computer-Assisted Learning) project, co-funded and awarded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, is committed to improving the quality of education in public schools. In its pilot year 2018, it offered 2,400 primary school children interactive mathematics lessons – with the help of an innovative didactic concept that combines individualized learning on the computer with games and group work.
Scholarship Program
In El Salvador, most young people from poor backgrounds – regardless of their talents and motivations – cannot pursue tertiary education. Consciente provides scholarships of 50-150 USD per month to outstanding students who do not have the financial means to go to university or a technical college. In exchange, the beneficiaries use their skills and knowledge for social purposes by realizing their own social projects in local communities.
Scholarship Program
Our three student residences currently enable committed young people from poor and remote communities to study a technical career. As part of the program, they are prepared to assume responsibility in local communities by designing, executing and evaluating their own social projects.
Sustainability Education Program
In the gender and environmental education project we combine education with social commitment to a sustainable society: young men and women participate in extensive thematic and methodological training and pass on their knowledge to local youth and community organizations.
Consciente is one of the first Swiss organizations to consistently pursue an evidence-based approach. Our projects are designed on a basis of scientific evidence and are carefully evaluated using scientific methods. Only if a project proves to be effective will it be continued and expanded. In this way we make sure that our work is not only well-intentioned, but actually achieves the desired results. To conduct diagnostic and evaluation studies, Consciente partners with research institutions such as the University of Bern.
We are very happy to receive general donations or specific contributions towards scholarships for young people from poor backgrounds.
You can also become a member of the Swiss support association or apply for volunteering service in El Salvador to become more actively involved in our work.
