Laure Cavalié is a French citizen who has been living in the city of Accra for three years. Laure has a degree in business and has worked in the financial sector for the last ten years (at UBS Bank in Europe for 8 years and now she is working in Advans Ghana, a Microfinance Institution in Ghana – whose shareholders are the IFC, La Société générale – KFW). Since she has been linving in Accra, Laure has been working as a  volunteer for the NGO Catholic Action for Street Children (CAS).

Juan Uribe is a Spanish citizen, specialized in fundraising, who has been traveling to the city of Accra for a year to develop international cooperation projects to help children living on the street in Greater Accra. Juan Uribe has a degree in business, with specialization in fundraising, law and advanced finance. Juan Uribe is the founder and president of the Carita Feliz foundation, which has been acting for more than fifteen years to provide education to street children in developing countries.

 The Carita Feliz foundation ,was established in Madrid, Spain, in 2003. In these 15 years, it has carried out international cooperation projects for more than 3.5 million euros, to provide education for boys and girls from the streets of the metropolitan area. Medellín, in Colombia.

The Carita Feliz foundation always acts through local people and NGOs, of recognized and proven track record, dedicated to providing street children with the necessary autonomy to achieve full citizenship and social, economic, cultural and spiritual progress.

In short terms, the Carita Feliz Foundation helps change the expression of abandonment and despair of street children, for a happy face. This happy face reflects that each boy and girl have the opportunity to be children and grow up in an environment of happiness, love and understanding.

The foundation’s success has been based on the professional and “business” management of its projects, striving for the study and personal and verified knowledge of each of the local NGOs, as follows:

  • Institutional evaluation: We carefully evaluate local entities, identifying which are the most suitable to truly help solve the drama of the children living on the streets. To achieve this, we carried out, for a minimum of 6 months, views of the projects, we talked with the children, we requested documentation, we investigated the organization and its achievements, we talked with the people in charge, etc.
  • Conception and definition: We collect information, analyze your data, statistics, economy, legal framework, socio-economic data, environmental impact, social impact, analysis of beneficiaries, the schedule of activities, the budget, etc.
  • Preparation of the project: The foundation visits the project’s action area several times to see that the alternative chosen by this project is the best option to help the marginalized population. Once it has been analyzed, it elaborates -from the hand of the local NGO- the project, with the methodology of the Logical Framework, to later adapt it to the required institutional formats. 
  • Presentation and search of institutions and people who co-finance the project: Once the project has been prepared, a search for possible co-financiers begins to carry out this project.
  • Execution and control: During the execution of the project, the Carita Feliz Foundation controls, in detail each cent invested, and follows -one to one- the execution procedures and the compliance of the management indicators of the same. As the project progresses, it will facilitate the money (against invoices or advances) until the end of it.
  • Closing and accounting: the foundation directs and collaborates in the preparation of the reports and reports to justify and render all the accounts required by the co-financiers.

Throughout this process, the Carita Feliz Foundation guarantees that 100% of the resources obtained will be used to carry out the project.

To date there are more than 3,000 children who have benefited directly from the projects that the Carita Feliz Foundation has promoted with foundations from developing countries.