Los Amigos De La Esquina (LADLE) is a wonderful nonprofit that hosts activities for local and native kids in Tulum, Mexico at no cost to families. We do everything on the basis of art, wellbeing, and environmental consciousness and life skills where we teach english, nutrition, entrepreneurship, and programming.
Our origin story starts in 2017 years ago when the founders bought the land ( in the center of Tulum) with the goal of building Airbnbs. As they prepared to build, neighborhood kids came by and asked "What are you doing? Can I help".
Every day more and more kids came to help and eventually the founders started doing simple art activities with them.
When it was time to build they new that if they built, the magic of the space would end.
So instead they donated the land, started the non profit, and raised the funds for the first year of operation.
And here we are 6 years later.
Some of our major achievements include:
-Year round we host 15 to 20 activities a week for over 40 kids all based on art, wellbeing, and environmental consciousness.
-Yoga and Meditation 2/3 Times a week for 6 years
-Art, Theatre, Ceramics, and Music Classes on a consistent basis
-Built a 2 story community center in the midst of a pandemic
-Built an outdoor rooftop terrace
-Joined forces with another non profit that uses our space to work with teenagers
-Have had over 500 volunteers from all over the world come and do workshops with the kids
-Went from most of the kids never having been to the beach to over 120 outings to different beaches, cenotes, jungles and more
-Held a christmas musical that the kids practiced for for weeks
-Had our first lemonade stand and sold over 70 lemonades
-Kids started their own microbusinesses
-Cooking/nutrition classes twice a month
-Active Compost Project
-Covered the building with a mural made of 100,000 bottle caps
Our goals for this year:
-Run more activities for even more kids- currently we are at 15-20 activities per week
-Start a school bus program so more kids from all over the town can come safely.
-Grow our new area "Life Skills" where we teach kids basic reading/writing, math, english, nutrition, programing, and entrepreneurship
- Finish our rooftop terrace with a mural and standing garden
- Hire full time staff
-Fully operational community garden
Our kids are the most wonderful, caring, curious people we have the pleasure of knowing and we are so excited to have you join this wonderful community.
What do we need?
Sponsor a Child for One Activity: $10 USD
Sponsor a Child for a Week: $60 USD
Sponsor a Child For a Month: $240 USD
Sponsor a Child for a Year: $2880 USD
Operations for a year:
Arts Program: $1,650 usd a Month
Wellbeing Program: $1,650 usd a Month
Environmental Consciousness Program: $1,650 usd a Month
Life Skills Program: $1,650 usd a Month
Total: $6,600 a Month
School Bus: $4000 a year
Community Garden: $500 a year