About

Mission: The mission of Team Tobati is to increase the opportunities offered to poor youth of Tobati, Paraguay.

Description: Team Tobatí is a 501-c3 non-profit organization made up of educators and students dedicated to raising Tobati's standard of living by improving education and healthcare infrastructures. With the active support of Tobati community leaders and organizations, the Team actively supports the physical improvement of schools, funds important programs, and supports medical services and initiatives.

About Tobatí:Tobatí is both a town and a provincial district within the department (state) of Cordillera, Paraguay. The population of the district of Tobatí is 21,315 of which 16,538 (75.5%) are under the age of 19. Over 33% of this population lives beneath the international poverty line while as high as 70% live in relative poverty. A large percentage of the houses in the region lack running water and electricity.

This poverty is especially prevalent in the region's rural villages, known as compañías. Most men and boys in the region work in small brick or tile factories that pay at most one or two dollars a day. A large number of girls work as domestic servants. Schools run in three or four hour shifts in order to allow for children to work and also due to overpopulation and a lack of resources in the local schools. Many children in Tobatí are employed.

To date, Team Tobati has:

- Funded and helped in the construction of the Macchi Education Center, which offers a school as well as computer literacy, English, and college preparation courses to the area's poor youth and also conducts public health campaigns and a type of girl scouts. The impressive building was officially completed in March 2004. Since its opening, Team Tobatí has funded and helped administer the center and the institute's school, which currently serves over 950 poor students;
- Funded and helped in the construction of five separate construction projects at El Centro de Salud, Tobatí's public medical clinic, which have more than quadrupled its size due to Team Tobatí;
- Funded and helped construct over 26 classrooms at rural elementary schools throughout the poor rural villages of the Tobatí district.
- Funded and helped construct two children's parks in central Tobatí as well as several athletic fields throughout the district.
- Helped in the construction of a large athletic complex, which will offer several soccer fields and basketball courts for the use of the district's poor.
- Brought over 40 U.S. medical doctors to Tobatí to perform free clinics for the poor of the area.
- Transported donated medical equipment to the clinic, including an x-ray machine, an ultrasound machine and a sterilizer;
- Given over 10 recent college graduates the opportunity to live in Tobati for a year and serve as a volunteer at the Macchi education center as well as at the district's public clinic.
- Made possible the first Cesarean section delivery and overnight stays at the clinic;
- Funded the construction of a new transmitting antenna for a Tobatí radio station that pledged to broadcast weekly medical programs in which doctors educate listeners on different medical and public health issues;
- Transported over 100 computers, several printers, modems and other equipment to Tobatí's schools, and funded the maintenance of a phone line for internet access;
- Transported a large quantity of antibiotics, anti-parasite medication, multivitamins, prenatal vitamins and other desperately needed items, including microscopes, slides, bandages, syringes, sutures, gloves, lamps, desks, stretchers, beds, computers, and dentistry equipment;

Givology is pleased to support the education-related efforts of Team Tobati and its transformative work