Another dream came true
Our community bakery
Today we address ourselves to you to thank you very much for the generous sponsorship we have received in these months, and without which we could not have realised our new projects.
Our soup kitchen for children in Barrio Illia (Bajo Flores) can continue to exist, thanks to the daily help of people like you, who have come up with donations in the form of food and clothing, honorary assistance and, in some cases, also of money.
Today we'd like to inform you that after many months of work, we have opened our community bakery in the Bajo Flores quarter, which, at the start of our project, will give regular work to 20 people of the 1.11.14 neighbourhood. Currently, our bakers are being instructed, and therefore, we have not yet started mass production of bakery products, but we have carried out tests with home-made bread, sweet bread, and other products; these were distributed free of charge in the neighbourhood.
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Our aims
generating jobs and proper professional training for people from fringe groups,
making bread and bakery products for free-of-charge distribution to children and elderly people,
opening a soup kitchen for 500 children where our bread products will be distributed,
sustaining our organisation with the sales of our products.
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Generating jobs
Considering the dramatic situation the majority of this Buenos Aires quarter's residents are facing, we'd like to prove that generating jobs is not impossible, and, which is more, does not depend on "great investors". For the first time we are implementing a job model that we consider the quickest and most natural way of stopping unemployment: the "socio-solidary business".
In contrast to other small businesses, the intention of the socio-solidary business is cost-effectiveness, not profit. How does that work? We don't break away from the basic principle of the economy we live in, but we take care that the revenues from the sale of our bakery products are NOT transformed to business profits or enrich the employees, but are used to generate additional jobs in the making and the sales of our products, without putting the cost-effectiveness of the business in danger. If the "masterminds" that talk about economy in the media every day implemented this business model (successfully tested in other parts of the world), unemployment would long ago have ceased to be the spectre that scares so many people.
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Free-of-charge distribution in the neighbourhood
We have collected statistics in this quarter, to determine which families live under poorest conditions, and these families receive daily rations of bread and bakery products. Most of them have average household earnings of one or two pesos per day or less.
The number of elderly people in need of care and assistance is alarming, and these, as well as the members of the many households with women being the sole wage owners, are the ones we want to support most of all.
Opening a soup kitchen
It was hard work, but now we've made it: we were able to open a "soup kitchen for children and elderly" in the heart of 1.11.14 neighbourhood. In the hut we made up with the help of dozens of volunteer youths, daily rations of milk-based meals and home-made bakery products are being distributed.
Sale of our bread products
As soon as our bakers have finished their professional training (supposedly in two or three months) we will start selling our products at certain places of our capital, to cover our business expenses.
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How we finance our organisation
Until today, we have been able to make ends meet, with the daily help and donations of people who, like you, want to do something to make these people's quality of life improve a little every day. These means were used for buying three ovens, blenders, kneading machines, kitchen appliances and tools, the basic equipment necessary for enabling the women to learn the baker's trade.
Unfortunately, the situation deteriorates every day, and until we can earn our own means through sales, there is a risk that we can't pursue our wonderful project any longer.
Therefore we ask you to participate in our project. If you can't afford helping us financially, please recommend our project to friends and acquaintances who could support us with a sum however small, so that we can continue to meet the challenge of generating jobs and food for those who have nothing.
If you wish to help, you can contribute: flour, sugar, kitchen appliances, gas cylinders, cutlery, seasoning and all other things useful to our community bakery. For maintenance, money is indispensable. If you wish to help with a sum however small, you can pay it into our account at Banco Galicia, Sucursal Chiclana (for Germany, a special account is currently being opened - translator's note).
We also need volunteer helpers, preferably grammar school and college students, who support us with setting up statistics, and miscellaneous management tasks.
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Programme
Lawyers for the poor
Our definition
The chance to make use of adequate legal advice in cases ranging from simple controversies to misuse or violation of the civil rights of those who have less.
Since we have no access to fair legal advice, we have had to suffer more than once the injustice and hardness of those who could afford a university lawyer and, with his help, could trample our dignity and our base right.
"Lawyers for the poor" is a working-programme where honorary lawyers and other people in similar positions take up the defence for the victims of injustice who haven't got the means for legal support. The programme was set up by the founders of the "soup kitchen".
We aim to be a sheet anchor for all people in this quarter who need legal support.
Our offer
From July on, three experienced lawyers will give legal advice covering all legal areas. They offer their advice at our office on Saturdays from 11:30 a.m. to 04:30 p.m. and will help anyone to find the best solution to his or her situation.
You can always contact our lawyers whenever you find your own rights or those of other members of your community violated. This legal advice, as well as the law suit (where appropriate), is completely free of charge.
We want to offer you a place where you can enforce your legal rights. Please ask for an interview (phone 4919-3873/ -6217).
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Groups for community work
Members
Ten youths from quarters 1.11.14 and Pte. Illia
Our aims
improving the conditions of life in the outskirts of Buenos Aires' southern areas, where the State offers little or insufficient support,
disinfecting and manual cleaning of public places,
weekly smoking out in quarter 1.11.14 and in public places of Pt. Illia neighbourhood, to fight varmint of all kinds,
freeing the lawns of quarter 1.11.14 from weeds,
biweekly rat poisoning (poisoned baits),
manual cleaning of dry wells and sewers,
maintenance of public places (lime paint-work),
chlorinating the backwaters of quarter 1.11.14,
collecting and destroying bulky refuse, to prevent endangering the populace.
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Sol Naciente
Non-profit organisation
To: whom it may concern
From: Lidia Hernández
Date: August 2002
Re: Day of the Child
I turn to you to introduce our "Comedor Sol Naciente":
We are a community soup kitchen where between 400 and 500 needy children of all ages and their mothers are served breakfast and lunch.
Due to the difficult situation our country is in, many things are lacking, and the generosity of people like you helps us to relieve the distress. Your solidarity is important to us.
With the Day of the Child approaching quickly, we are in the economically worst times we've had for a long time. We find ourselves compelled to appeal to your solidarity, to grant a wish to the children forlorn and forgotten by most.
Working on this project gives you a very special feeling; it's hard to describe that feeling; perhaps it's simply a feeling of PEACE. A peace that envelops you every day.
"Since I have had the chance to work with poor children, I turned a complete human being. No man is better than the other, but I have learnt to meet each situation and its limits with humanity. The more you give, the more you get. It is like feeling a kind of compassion with the heart of the world."
On this day we would like to give a toy to every child. Therefore, we respectfully submit a list of the numbers of children and their ages.
| 6 m. - 4 y. | 4 - 7 y. | 7 - 10 y. | 10 - 13 y. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Both sexes | 75 | ||||
| Girls | 78 | 85 | 100 | ||
| Boys | 50 | 89 | 120 | ||
| Subtotal | 75 | 128 | 174 | 220 | |
| Total | 597 |
We thank you in advance for your generosity.
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Recreational activities for school children
Participants
volunteer grammar school pupils and college students
Main activities
homework support for two groups of 35 children each
English language beginners' courses
creative work (handicraft, arts, sports)
basic courses for PC and internet
free-of-charge internet access in a room with four terminals
periodic walks and public spectacles
alphabetisation courses for adults
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Celebrating the Day of the Child 2001
collection of approx. 2500 toys, paid for by donations from individuals and small businesses,
distribution of approx. 1500 toys among the children in eight municipal hospitals in Buenos Aires' southern area,
distribution of approx. 1000 toys among the children who eat in the soup kitchens of Sol Naciente (quarter Pte. Illia, area 1.11.14, Bajo Flores, and area 20, Villa Lugano).
At the beginning I thought it would be easy, I thought that everyone wanted to support the idea to help, but as time goes by I realise that there are only very few people interested in other people and their requirements, or in those lacking a providing and working father.
Few are interested in the child whose father is an alcoholic, the child without a father, the child whose father is simply unemployed. Today I wish to THANK all those who make this possible; this is why I write to you and your family who help.
I wish you all the best, and may God bless you! Thank you!
Lidia and the children
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Programmes for the disabled
Our aims
organised regular delivery of five wheelchairs and other orthopaedic appliances per month,
formation of a wheelchair basketball team to help integrate disabled people.
Our approach
Since the beginning of this year we have collected statistics of bodily disabled people in the poorest neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires' southern areas.
We distribute about five to seven wheelchairs monthly, preferably to children who had to leave school for this reason.
Next priority are elderly people who can't move otherwise.
Our basketball team was first at the amateur championship; the orthopaedic appliances were delivered by CILSA.