Frequently asked questions

In this section, we want to answer common questions, so that a lot of the things you might want to know may be answered here. If you have more questions, please contact us!

General advice about presents for the children

The school year in Paraguay starts in February and ends in November. Outside of this time period, the school is closed and there is no contact with the children and their parents.

Presents and parcels that arrive at the school during this time can not be received, because the gate is not occupied. Written notes from the post office are not seen in time. Because of that, it is possible that parcels and presents are sent back.

It takes some time for the staff to hand out the presents to the children in school or to decide with the parents and the children what kind of present will be bought for them.

Transfers to the bank account in Paraguay occur at the beginning of every month.

What therefore has to be kept in mind concerning the presents:
1. Funds should be available in the sponsors account at the end of september, so it can be transferred to Paraguay in october. This gives the staff enough time to buy the gift in time for christmas. It also gives the children the opportunity to say thank you for the present before the school year ends.

2. If a donation can not be transferred to Paraguay until November, it can not be guaranteed that the children receive their presents in time. It has to be considered that the school year ends in november and therefore, there is still a lot of administration work to be done. Besides that, new sponsorships are discussed during this time, which means a lot of work for the student services departement who are also responsible for the mentoring of the children.

3. Only in special cases would the parents directly receive the donations for the children. Normally, the school, parents and the children decide together what kind of present will be bought. Together, the staff and children's parents or family will buy the present. If the family receives the money directly (which is very rare), the school expects a receipt of what was bought with the donation. This way, the school can be accountable to the sponsors that donated the money.

4. Parcels take up to 3 months to arrive in Paraguay. The packages should always be adressed to the Centro Educativo, so that they can be received. A lot of streets simply don't have names, which is why the Centro Educativo is the only real contact point that makes it possible to contact the children. The parcel should be double wrapped, but the name of the child should not be listed in the address, as it is asked to be written on the inside wrapping. By doing this, it is most certain for the parcel to arrive. It is not intended that the addresses of the children and their parents are known by the sponsors. The sponsorship ends when the child leaves the school.

5. It has to be considered though that the post office does not work as secure as it does in Europe or North America. Unfortunally it can happen that parcels get lost or are left for a very long time until they are delivered.