In 2017, the LATA Foundation has donated £50,000 to a range of grassroots social and environmental initiatives in Latin America making it the most successful donor year to date for the charity.
Created by the Latin America travel industry in the UK, the LATA Foundation's mission is to support grassroots projects throughout Latin America to help to transform lives, supply clean water, dental or medical support and offer practical training and skills to empower local communities.
Since it was formed, The LATA Foundation has donated in excess of £223,000 to a wide range of projects in Latin America.
In 2017, LATA has donated to 13 initiatives. Examples include:
The Condor Trust, Ecuador An educational initiative enabling young Ecuadorians from low income families to attend secondary school and/ or have access to higher education. The LATA Foundation has provided funds for the provision of uniforms, books and school materials. Now some of the first students taken on during the early years of the project have graduated from university and flourish in professional jobs, demonstrating how successful the whole cycle of support can be.
Vidarte Space, Brazil Vidarte Space has several projects to help underprivileged children from the favelas of Rio de Janerio. Their main project, the Vidanca Dance School, is located in the Complexo do Alemao favela. It began in 2009 as an initiative to offer children from the favelas the opportunity to express themselves through the art of ballet. The school also provides other activities that these children wouldn't normally have access to. The LATA Foundation is currently supporting the dance and football projects at Vidarte Space and thanks to the support of LATA Foundation donor Las Iguanas, has been able to install a new dance floor, mirrors and ballet barres.
Picaflor House, Peru Picalor House is an educational charity working in the small town of Oropesa and other villages in the surrounding rural area 25km outside of Cusco, Peru, to provide after-school support to students and families. Picaflor also supports the local community through hygiene programmes, taps for teeth washing and stoves for local families, having a far-reaching positive impact on the wider community. The LATA Foundation supports Picaflor House with English teaching resources such as text books and audio materials as well as financing an English language coordinator to help implement a new English teaching plan. The English teaching programme is core to Picaflor's strategy as it one of the key skills needed by students in their state education and in the local employment market.
