DCCV is an independent Cape Verdean association with a partner organization in Austria and Switzerland.

We started out with six soccer balls for the establishment of a soccerschool in Tarrafal on the island of Santiago in the year 2002. Today we operate and finance (partically proportions, partically as a whole) a child and a youth center with training centers, computer room, Terra Cotta project and more.

Our project addresses itself particularly to children and young people of 6 to 20 years of age, from particularly poor economical and socially weak backgrounds.
 
Analysis of the problems

• The lacking economical resources in Cape Verde (shortage of water, not enough agricultural acreage, hardly any own industry) force a lot of people to look for their subsistence in foreign countries. More than half of the Cape Verdean citizens live and work in foreign countries, hence the population is very young (about 45% are under 15 years). The average age is only 19 years.
• Due to the high emigration, the traditionally open family structures are extremely shattered. Most mothers have about 3-5 children from different fathers who take neither financial nor caring responsibilities. Therefore the children usually have to contribute to the income of the household by working as well. Constantly confronted by the emigration of loved ones, their money transfers and the high local unemployment those children grow up with the firm wish to leave their country as quickly as possible.
• During the last years juvenile delinquency as well as juvenile alcohol- and drug abuse increased in Tarrafal too. Hard drugs, especially cocaine and crack, are appearing more and more. Causes for this are, amongst other things:
• An increasing internal migration. 50% of the inhabitants now live on Santiago, the main island.
• Especially the uninhabited islands in the northwest are being "abused" as trans-shipment centers by international drug rings.

Main objectives

• Creating perspectives for the future
• Decreasing poverty within the target group
• Contribution to the economical and social development in the region
• Decreasing impulses for an emigration based on poverty

In the long run, the activities of the center can contribute to detaining the rapidly increasing violence and drug abuse in the location. Professional training and social integration can create impulses to decrease the high emigration within young people (which seriously weakens the social structure).  

This succeeded during the first years, thanks to the entirety of the project (professional trainings, computer science- and language courses, workshops, offers in sports, art and culture). Thus the concept ought to maintain and be extended!

Offers

Delta Cultura offers:

• Professional training
• Adolescent counseling
• Computer science and language courses
• Workshops
• Soccerschool
• Cultural events
• Batuku (traditional "drum-dance-singing")