Dear family members, friends, colleagues,
After being here a couple of months, I have become more and more familiar with the local community. I’m sure you can imagine that it is completely different here to the Belgium I’m used to. Personally, I had prepared myself for the worst: sleeping on the floor, no shower, always the same, simple food, no television,...
Now of course AFS has made sure that al participants are residing in well-off families. That is also the only possibility because our families don’t receive compensation to house us and feed us! I wonder where al that money I paid AFS is going to.
I came here with a plan to make a real difference. As often however, this is foolishly overconfident and it is not at all that easy to accomplish. I was required to modify my plan a couple of times. After much discussion with my colleagues here at Don Bosco, I set out last weekend with Maud (a volunteer from Brussels) to get to know my target area. With a sturdy Peruvian bodyguard on either side, we scouted the border of Chiclayo by mototaxi. The mission was to finally see with our own eyes the poverty we hear so much about, but most of which remains well hidden if you don’t make your way outside the commercial centre.
Driving over the exaggeratingly dented dirt roads, with the wind in your hair and the blistering sun right above, you would almost feel like being on a safari in Africa. Until at one point, the powerful smell of garbage reaches you nostrils and looking around you notice the huge heaps of rotting trash lying in the streets. Our mototaxi maneuvers a way through the waste and we pass the first poverty-stricken houses. Suddenly our driver Edgar stops and says he won’t go any further due to safety reasons. This leaves us no other option than to continue on foot while Edgar remains behind to guard his vehicle. Escorted by Donato we look around, absorbing our environment. Children in dirty clothes, sometimes shoeless, watch us with amazed eyes. We don’t see many men, they are busy working in the city. We knock on the door of a more solid looking house and wait. 4 houses later the door finally opens and we are met by a mother of 3 children. After a ‘buenas dias’ and a courageous attempt to clarify our intentions, Donato takes over. Out of the conversation Maud and I conclude that FOOD, CLOTHES and SHOES are needed the most. We say our goodbyes and return to the mototaxi, ready to visit Cruz de la Esperanza, one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Chiclayo.
After half a day of visiting 5 different neighbourhoods, the experiences we witnessed are intense and hopefully only tiny compared to what we shall experience if our plan becomes reality.
What is our actual plan?
First of all we would like to make clear that this action is completely independant from AFS. It is a personal initiative without making any profit.We, 8 AFS participants, are going to raise money from you, the rich Europe. With that money we will buy food, clothes and shoes. Afterwards, with the help of local AFS volunteers and our taxi-duo, we will go from door to door in Cruz de la Esperanza, giving the people what they need most. To make things go smoothely, we are applying a system that has been recomended to us by Donato. We are going to try to take a look in each house in advance to give the people (with special attention to children!) a cupon stating what they should receive, for example: 4 pairs of children’s shoes, 3 shirts and food. This way we are hoping to reach as many families as possible. After having made an overview we will, depending on the amount of money gathered, stock up on material. Then we can go back and hand out to the people with a cupon.
Ofcourse most of you don’t realize the value of money here and what you can purchase with it. We aren’t expecting you to make huge donations but hope that with these realistic examples we can make you realize that even the tiniest donation can mean a lot to these people.
1 euro is currently worth 3.7 soles
1 pair of children’s slippers 3 Soles
1 pair of slippers 7 Soles
1 pair of shoes 10 soles
100 bananas 16 Soles
50 kg potatoes 30 Soles
1 children’s shirt 6 Soles
1 shirt 9 Soles
The prices depend on where you buy and in what quantity. Luckily we have already received quite a few helpful addresses; for instance you’ll find the cheapest shoes in Trujillo and we know that for cheap clothing Lima is the place to be. Coincidently we visited these two cities in the end of November and we did some scouting. Now we have addresses for to order shoes in Trujillo and clothes from Lima, which has a store also here in Chiclayo. Concerning the food we will have to wait a bit longer to buy because you can t stock it in when prices or low just because the food doesn’t last. The plan is to do our hand out somewhere half of January. Shortly before that we will go to Mochoqueque, a place with big import from la Selva (Jungle) near Chiclayo, to buy the food.
So, that was a lot to process. If you would like to help use by donating, thanks! We all know this is like the 100th fundraiser this year in Belgium or what country you’re living in, so If you already sponsored another initiative: thank you to! ….it seems like a small drop in the huge ocean but even the smallest drop can make a difference!
Bank account: 320 0299451 82 with mentioning your name and ESPERANZA (=hope)
Also please send us an e-mail (benjaminceulemans@gmail.com) mentioning your donated amount. This serves as an extra control.
Many thanks and you can count on some beautiful photographs if our action becomes successful.
Con cariño,
Maud, Julia, Aljoscha, Patamon, Marthe, Theresa, Aleksei and Benjamin
