"Chances for Caribbean Youngsters/ Kansen Voor Jongeren Cariben"
Unfortunately many youngsters on St. Maarten and the other 5 islands within the Dutch Kingdom leave secondary school without a diploma.
The funding agency "Cooperating Foundation of the Dutch Caribbean" will start with a new program in 2013 that seeks to address this problem: Chances for Young Caribbeans. Twenty initiatives on all 6 islands that want to enhance the chances of youngsters between the ages of 12 and 25 can participate in the program. Signing up can be done untill July the 12th via www.samenwerkendefondsen.org.
The duration of Chances of Caribbean Youngsters Program is four years. The participating foundations will receive program support while executing their project and can receive a financial contribution up to a maximum of € 50.000,00 per year. Sharing experiences with the other participants forms an integral part of the program. Interested organizations can visit the website www.samenwerkendefondsen.org for more information and to obtain the application form. For assistance with completing the applicationform, foundations can call or email the project advisor for Cooperating Foundations SXM, Mrs. Saskia Kliphuis at 5860808 or samfondsxm@gmail.com.
Twenty projects on the six islands of the Dutch Caribbean will be selected to participate. All initiatives should reach at least twenty youngsters per year during the first three years of the program. The participating organizations should all aim at drop out prevention or at guiding youngsters back to school or towards stable employment.
The Cooperating Foundations has been established to support social initiatives on the islands of the former Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. It consists of five Dutch Funding agencies, namely Stichting Kinderpostzegels, Oranje Fonds, Innovatiefonds Zorgverzekeraars, Skanfonds and Fonds Sluyterman van Loo.