Hello there everybody!
I've got a project here in Buenos Aires that could use a little help!
About 6 years ago I found out from a friend about a group of organizations that been started to try to help take care of kids in some of the poorer neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. These operations, generally referred to as comedores infantiles, ran the spectrum from the larger sponsored organizations to many (unfortunately too many) smaller privately run kitchens that were usually run by a few women trying to help feed the kids in their neighborhood. Although kids can go to school free, they are not served food, and these comedores attempted to address that by offering whatever they could. As well, several of them offered what they could for some of the elderly folks in their neighborhoods.
With the online help from listings of comedores on websites such as redsolidaria.org.ar, we identified a number of smaller comedores that were not receiving any help from any other source, and made several trips to various areas such as Quilmes and La Matanza to visit them and see what my friends and I could do to help.
Although we ambitiously started with 6 comedores in three neighborhoods, within a year funding and time constraints forced us to reduce that to 4, all in the provencia called La Matanza. La Matanza is the largest provencia in GBA, with almost 4 million people, and most of the area is poor, much of it VERY poor!
Over the years I have been fortunate enough to receive many donations, mostly of cash but often (and just as useful and needed) of clothes, toys, and school supplies. We have tried to make a special push at Christmas to come up some funds for some kind of party, and as many "stocking stuffer" gifts as we could afford. Besides donating cash and food, we have purchased ovens, refridgerators, freezers, hot-dog cookers, sewing machines and built and repaired roofs and structures - pretty much whatever we could do to help these folks to keep doing what they are doing!
Unfortunately, inflation has been crushing these comedores, and at the same time as world economic problems have reduced donations, and since they pretty much receive nothing from the government (except for occasional gestures during an election year) several of them are on the edge of being unable to continue.
There is a website I put together at http://www.BairesKids.com that tells more about some of our beneficiaries and some of the history of our efforts. Please have a peek at it, and if any of you would like to help me keep these organizations in operation, either with contributions or donations of food, clothes, appliances, or practically anything else, please PM me with an EMail or phone and I'll be happy to tell you more about the project.
I try to visit these places at least once a month, and I welcome anyone who would like to come along and visit these organizations and the kids firsthand.
Thanks a lot!
David
PS: As you can see from the web page, although I may have a few talents, one of them is NOT web design! Anyone who wants to help re-design and/or maintain the BairesKids website would be doing both me and the kids (not to mention visitors) a BIG service!
I've got a project here in Buenos Aires that could use a little help!
About 6 years ago I found out from a friend about a group of organizations that been started to try to help take care of kids in some of the poorer neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. These operations, generally referred to as comedores infantiles, ran the spectrum from the larger sponsored organizations to many (unfortunately too many) smaller privately run kitchens that were usually run by a few women trying to help feed the kids in their neighborhood. Although kids can go to school free, they are not served food, and these comedores attempted to address that by offering whatever they could. As well, several of them offered what they could for some of the elderly folks in their neighborhoods.
With the online help from listings of comedores on websites such as redsolidaria.org.ar, we identified a number of smaller comedores that were not receiving any help from any other source, and made several trips to various areas such as Quilmes and La Matanza to visit them and see what my friends and I could do to help.
Although we ambitiously started with 6 comedores in three neighborhoods, within a year funding and time constraints forced us to reduce that to 4, all in the provencia called La Matanza. La Matanza is the largest provencia in GBA, with almost 4 million people, and most of the area is poor, much of it VERY poor!
Over the years I have been fortunate enough to receive many donations, mostly of cash but often (and just as useful and needed) of clothes, toys, and school supplies. We have tried to make a special push at Christmas to come up some funds for some kind of party, and as many "stocking stuffer" gifts as we could afford. Besides donating cash and food, we have purchased ovens, refridgerators, freezers, hot-dog cookers, sewing machines and built and repaired roofs and structures - pretty much whatever we could do to help these folks to keep doing what they are doing!
Unfortunately, inflation has been crushing these comedores, and at the same time as world economic problems have reduced donations, and since they pretty much receive nothing from the government (except for occasional gestures during an election year) several of them are on the edge of being unable to continue.
There is a website I put together at http://www.BairesKids.com that tells more about some of our beneficiaries and some of the history of our efforts. Please have a peek at it, and if any of you would like to help me keep these organizations in operation, either with contributions or donations of food, clothes, appliances, or practically anything else, please PM me with an EMail or phone and I'll be happy to tell you more about the project.
I try to visit these places at least once a month, and I welcome anyone who would like to come along and visit these organizations and the kids firsthand.
Thanks a lot!
David
PS: As you can see from the web page, although I may have a few talents, one of them is NOT web design! Anyone who wants to help re-design and/or maintain the BairesKids website would be doing both me and the kids (not to mention visitors) a BIG service!
