Just who are these children anyway?
More than 1,500 children are registered to Carita Feliz and about 1,000 use the center on any given day. The majority of the children that come to Carita Feliz live under very difficult conditions nearby barrios. However, in discussions with the children, we have know that they do not feel poor and so are never treated as such.

Each three months, children are enrolled in new classes and we take this opportunity to gather data on how the children live, what their needs are and how we can serve them better. These surveys have generated the following statistics about the children:

Profile of the children
As the age range for children in Carita Feliz varies greatly, our activities are targetted accordingly. For example, there is Kindergarten and infant dance for toddlers and computer studies and aerobics for adolescents. Our youngest member is 1 year old, our oldest is 23. However, 80% of the children who come to Carita Feliz are between 8 and 16 years old and the mode age is 13.

There is more interest in the activities in Carita Feliz among girls. In fact, 60% of the children are girls which can be explained by young men having to find a job, girls maturing faster than boys and, more speculatively, that young women are more keen to break out of their situation than young men. Certainly, women aged 14-19 are very aware of the dangers of starting a family too early or picking the wrong partner.

Housing and family
There are no homeless children in Carita Feliz. In fact, there are only about 150 in the whole of Granada (population 130,000). Eighty-five percent of the children live within 1km of the center. Of the remaining 15%, 5% live more than 2kms from Carita Feliz. The most popular barrios are Calle San Juan del Sur (40% of the children), Santa Rosa (25%), La Sabaneta (10%) and Cuiscoma (10%).

Most children live in stable families either with both of their parents (50%) of just with their mother (31%). The remaining 19% live with other relatives or are married, which is not uncommon for adolescents in their 20s. This contradicts the image of many children's centers: our members are not homeless, nor are they drugusers or orphans.

Living conditions
When asked about how many people live in the house, more than half of the children live with 5-6 others in the house, which can include cousins and uncles as well as the direct family. However, an astonishing 21% live with more than 8 people in the home. It is little surprise that low income families find it difficult to support large households.

Contrary to popular beliefs, most children have access to utilities in the home. All the children have light and water and a staggering 93% have a television in the home. Another 83% have a radio. This is possible because some families "borrow" electricity directly from the overhead power cables: it is not uncommon to find two wires with a bent nail in the end, throw across the positive and negative charge and then straight into the television or light bulb. However, many others have electricity meters and pay for the electricity consumed.

School
In contrast to the local average of 50%, over 90% of children who use Carita Feliz also go to school. For most children, Carita Feliz provides an after-school activity rather than a full-time school. The exception is those children who cannot afford to attend school and make use of the academic classes in Carita Feliz.

The majority of children attend just 4 schools in Granada: Carlos A. Bravo, Guadelupe, Carmela Noguera, Mercedes Mandragón. This means that they often go with their school friends to Carita Feliz to our classes or for dinner in the evening.