Starting a Fundraising Campaign to Save the Kindergarten

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One of the Fallen Angels in need of the kindergarten One of the Fallen Angels in need of the kindergarten Photo by Kristine Vaivode

Picture this: You are a single parent working hard to support your children. Six days a week, you have to take your children to work with you on a 2-hour bus plus train plus walking commute each way. 

Your boss is not happy that you have to mind the children while you work and question your levels of commitment and productivity. You're frustrated because you desperately need this job that affords you a roof over your head and puts food on the table for your kids. You live in constant fear that you will lose your job and risk the livelihoods of your little ones.

To your relief, a kindergarten opens in your neighbourhood —a safe haven for your children to play; to learn basic literacy and important life skills such as socialising with other children and adults; to be nourished with breakfast and lunch, and learn the value of good nutritional habits—. 

And then you learn that the kindergarten will be no longer.

How would you feel?

Now picture this:

You pay a sum, more than you would earn in a decade, to purchase a land so that you could realise a dream and build a kindergarten for some 50 families in need in the vicinity. After you've constructed the nursery space, you discover that you do not, in fact, hold the deed to the property upon which you've poured all of your hard-earned resources, and then some.

You have been swindled.

Worse still, you are now required to pay for the land (again) as well as the building you built or risk losing it all.

How would you feel?

Disappointed? Defeated? Devastated? Desperate?

Well, this is the predicament in which the people of José León Suárez currently find themselves, so we decided to create a video in order to help them raise funds to save their kindergarten.

This Tuesday, together with coordinators Mile and Sami, the Voluntario Global communications team ventured to J. L. Suárez, a region north west of central Buenos Aires to visit one of the kindergartens in our Network of Organizations. This kindergarten and nursery is a sanctuary for the children (aged between 8 months and 5 years) of over 50 families in the area and affectionately referred to as "El Jardín"..

When we arrived at El Jardín, we were overwhelmed at the number of parents with their little ones that Liliana, the heart and soul behind the kindergarten, had amassed on such short notice. All in the name of saving their beloved nursery. We quickly got to work and filmed the parents, one by one, expressing their dismay at the possible closure of El Jardín. Several got emotional and we could see what this place means to them. A particularly touching narrative was a single mother who spoke of a time when she found herself suddenly hospitalised. During the week she spent in hospital recuperating, Liliana and the ladies of El Jardín took care of her son, little Luciano. 

After we wrapped up, a much-needed storm swept in and provided some temporary relief to the torridity of the day. A sensation, no doubt, not yet shared by Liliana and the affected parents. However, we can only hope that through communication of this cause, we will be able to find a way to help Angeles Traviesos in any future fundraising efforts. 

Salvemos El Jardín! 

Please make a donation to our Crowdfunding Campaign

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