The shop as it currently stands
A few weeks ago, I wrote about my visit to Escuela Ebel Pastor Oropeza, high in the hills of Petare. It was quite the experience – be sure to read it through, if you didn’t back then.
The school serves underprivileged children with special needs from the surrounding shantytown. Its focus is vocational – the idea is to educate kids to get proper jobs, providing them with basic courses in cooking, sewing, arts and crafts, and shop.
I was inspired by the work the teachers do, but shocked by the conditions they do it in. The wood-and-electricity shop, in particular, was extremely basic. It just didn’t have that much for the kids to learn with. A few screwdrivers, some wires, basic electrical stuff, and a few rudimentary tools for woodwork here and there.
After my initial post, several readers thought we should try to do something for the school. I thought so too. And then, just the other day, I received an email from one of our readers who works in the Petare mayor’s office.
The Principal would like to know if our readers could help them out with that woodshop.
The Principal went to Epa!, a local hardware store, and wrote up a list of things they need to equip it properly. The budget include wrenches, gloves, wires, protective glasses … and a whole bunch of other stuff I wouldn’t know how to translate.
So here’s where you come in.
I want you to look into your heart, think about this, and help them out. Any amount is possible, but I would like us – yes, you and me, together – to buy them the entire list.
Just $1,500 would take their woodshop from a shambles to real learning resource. Our contacts at the Alcaldía’s Education Department say this is a top priority for them. (The entire list of supplies is after the jump.)
How do we do this? Well, since so many of our readers live abroad, we’re gonna try using PayPal. Here is how:
You think about it, decide an amount, and hopefully, add a zero.Go to the PayPal website.Click on “Send Money.”Write that you are paying someone in the United States, and enter the amount you wish to send.Follow the prompts. Say that you want to send the money to my account by entering my email address, nageljuan at gmail dot com. (If you don’t already have one, you’ll have to set up a PayPal account – that takes a couple of minutes.)Enter your credit card information safely.
That’s it! I will get an email saying you have deposited some amount, and I will email you back confirming your donation.
[Update: Thanks to everyone who donated, our goal is now met! Please don’t send anymore – save your donation for the next project.]
What they currently make
Once we have closed the drive, we’ll send the money to the school. Soon enough, we’ll put up photos of the new shop!
We have top-notch contacts inside the Petare municipality – loyal readers, really – who can guarantee your contribution is going to go where we need it to go. It’s not the kind of promise we would make if we weren’t confident we could keep it.
My visit to Petare moved me deeply. I tried to convey the reality of the school in my post. Who knows? Perhaps these new supplies will help one of these kids develop a deeper interest in their craft. Maybe these supplies will make a difference in that kid’s life. It’s worth a shot, don’t you think?
Please give generously. Let the kids in Petare know that our readers abroad haven’t forgotten them. Their shopping list is after the jump.
UPDATE: We made it, folks! See the next post.
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Caracas Chronicles 
done! great initiative !
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Gracias Isabella!
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How about info for donating in Bsf, such as an account to transfer it to? It would also be more transparent if you posted the list of items to buy.
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It would be great, but we’re not really set up for it. (We’re just a couple of guys with computers, not an actual charity, y’know!)
Juan, no reason not to put the list at the end of the post, yeah?
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Still you should set up a bolivar es account, it would probably be more transparent…
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We just have no idea how.
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I can help organize something in Bolivares. Or if you prefer and want to donate a specific tool then I can go pick it up and make sure it gets to the municipality.
I don’t think is easy to create a bank account in Bs. unless is at someones name. If you want to create a bank account for an organization, there has to be a RIF and a bunch of other stuff that will take an excruciating amount of time.
It seems that Epa allows also for online purchases. So the most transparent thing I could help set up is that people buy tools, they ask them to be picked up at Epa Los Ruices or delivered to me or to someone at the Alcaldia. If you want me to deliver them to me, I’ll do my best to show that it reached the school.
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Can you post it? I don’t know how.
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Done!
Looking forward to the photos.
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Gracias Carolina!…looking through the other thread, this was really your idea, so thanks for that too!
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Not really. it was a brainstorming thread of ideas. :-)
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Listo Chamin!
Keep us posted!
On another note, what’s with all of a sudden needing to log in to WordPress to comment? Is that you guys or WordPress?
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Un millón, RevBob!
On the other thing: a couple of weeks ago the blog came under strong attack from a bunch of spam-bots trying to sell you penis-enlarging time shares from a dying nigerian prince or something like that, so I had to up the security on the comments section…
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Oh man…is this the start of the Quico/Nagel SuperPAC?
Kidding, of course. There should be more non-state operated initiatives like this in Venezuela. Great job!
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I want to thank those of you who have donated. We have US$700 so far… Great, but still more than halfway from our goal. Please give!! Most donations have been small, but it adds up. This is not going to go to some charity or some bureaucracy in Geneva, it’s going to go straight to the pockets of … Epa! hardware store!
OK, I jest, but you know what I mean. It’s going to go from PayPal to the person in charge of buying the materials. We guarantee the money will be used properly.
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That’s so fast! And Kanako’s still fidgeting with PayPal’s website and hasn’t been able to put in ours yet!
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How much to go?
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Wonderful initiative! Count me in.
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Great idea.
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Let the kids in Petare know that our readers abroad haven’t forgotten them, but also remind them that if we ever get back into power we’ll drastically cut social spending and they’ll have to fend for themselves. Just sayin’…
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We need a new version of this: It’s absolutely true cuz I read it in Diario Vea…
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Quico, I love your pose in your photo. You look so sophisticated!
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Where’s your fifty bucks, cabeza ‘e ñame?
Pony up, time to show your commitment to the needy.
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Is there a way to make a wishlist at epa.com where you would buy an item, as you would for someone’s wedding gift? Lemme know if you set up a way to donate in Bs.
And congrats on the iniciative.
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That is a good idea! A registry list!
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Do you, Caracas Chronicles, take Escuela Ebel Pastor Oropeza to be your lawfully wedded elementary school?
And do you, Escuela Ebel Pastor Oropeza, take Caracas Chronicles, to be your lawfully wedded blog?
I hereby pronounce you blog and pet cause…
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Can there be a list for books that could be re-used?
Imagine there is a little library with some basic books
on whatever topics they deal with: carpintería, very basic maths, short stories,
etc.
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I think this is a wonderful service you guys are doing. Me quito el sombrero.
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Mejor déjate el sombrero y mándanos $50!
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Como dicen por alli, “Bajate de la mula.”
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It always worries me a little bit when people invest money purely out of goodness… It can lead to distortions!
Having said that, I will definetly help out as soon as I am not broke still.
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Hi Quico,
I would be happy to help out via bank transfer or online purchase. I loathe and distrust PayPal, however. See this cautionary tale on charity drives that are not “official” charities and where the proceeds are used for merchandise:
http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/
http://www.regretsy.com/2012/03/12/paypal-does-it-again/
(It’s not just Regretsy, there are many such stories of abuse. I have my own, also.)
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Since we are talking about kids and schooling, I wanted to share this article from a friend of mine.
http://www.el-nacional.com/noticia/27324/23/A-la-escuela-con-Alvaro.html
I’m in love of Alvaro and his smile.
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Done!
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That article was very touching. Especially his effort to stay in school. Walking two miles to get there, his disappointment over failing one year.
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What really got me is that his chances to go to high school are slim because he can’t get an ID because his mom is an illegal immigrant, even if he was born in Venezuela and has a birth certificate! For me, that should be enough.
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Yeah, I’ll bet he would get one if he were old enough to vote. By the way that’s unconstitutional, he was born in Venezuela he is entitled to Venezuelan citizenship by the Constitution and obviously to a Venezuelan ID.
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OK, people, how awesome are you?!
The grand total right now, 1:53 Chilean time is … drumroll please … US$1,461.21 !!
We’re almost there folks!
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Los mejores cincuenta pesos que me he gastado en mi vida.
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Done. Un granito de arena…
Just a comment on the list, though: They have materials on the list to prepare work stations with electrical power, such as cable and receptacles, but no conduit and boxes. I do hope they are not going to be running bare wires all over the place. If they are going to teach students work skills, it would be nice if it were done with at least the bare minimum of industrial safety standards.
As a side note, most Venezuelan construction sites I have seen have some of the worst safety standards I have seen anywhere in world: Not a revolutionary priority, I suppose…
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Yikes. Good point, I will let them know. We have a little bit left over, maybe they can use it for that.
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The standards are fine. They’ve got first world standards and end of the world enforcement. You said it- not a revolutionary priority.
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I must say it impressed me in a good way that they had security glasses in the list. Being in the construction world for so long, I know THAT is one thing they don’t really care about.
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They have traffic laws here too, and we can see how well that is working out for us…
In order for it to work, someone, somewhere, has to give a crap, and keep working at it day after day until a few more people care and start working at it day after day to improve the entire culture of the industry. In my entire career in construction, I had one man killed on my project. In happened in a country with poor safety standards, and the man fell six floors because he just couldn’t bother to “hook up” his lanyard even though he was wearing his harness. That was a very bad day.
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I went through a similar experience. The guy didn’t get killed, but he laid on the ground for a little bit. Someone covered some openings on the floor with cardboard, and he stepped on them falling 2 storeys.
Not much for safety standards in construction sites.
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I’ve been out, lately (malware, only one computer, now in shop), and I see I missed todo un mundo. So sorry I couldn’t contribute, but will wait for the next project, and look forward to Juan’s unbeatable description of his experience, and our discussions on the subject.
Like Carolina, I was pleased to see safety glasses. I also liked seeing work gloves. Just hope that there’s some attention to using a mask (aunque sea un trapo) when dealing with dust or fines.
My final thoughts are that these tools be locked up, signed out when in use, and that security be reliable. (We broached this before.)
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