Andean Aid is participating in Toms Shoes “One Day Without Shoes” event on April 8th.  This event is to bring attention to the need to provide shoes to the poor.  TOMS gives a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair purchased.  So, why is Andean aid participating?  Yesterday I found out from our Help and Hope Center director, Gaby Andrade, that a huge need among our students is shoes.  Just in villa Bahareque it is estimated that 200 children need shoes.  In our Cúcuta, Colombia location the need is even greater with an estimated 500 children without proper footwear.  The same with our new Chinácota, Colombia location.  That’s why we’re spending the day shoeless to get a feel for these kids needs.  Wouldn’t it be great if Andean Aid joined forces with Toms Shoes and our location in La Frontera of Venezuela and Colombia became one of their shoe drops?  Learn more about One Day Without Shoes at the following link and go barefootin’ with us.

One Day Without Shoes

Our third Help and Hope Center will be located in Chinácota, Colombia.  Pastor Gregorio Anaya will host the Center in his church.  Pastor Gregorio is a vibrant and energetic man who is perfect to kick off our new strategy to place Centers in community churches.  An added benefit is that he will be able to provide weekly pastoral oversight to our Cúcuta, Colombia location.

Chinácota is located on the northeast side of Colombia near the Venezuelan border.  The latest census shows a population of about 15,000 with 36 percent being children under 14 years old.  Social problems include children under twelve years old with drug addiction, children not cared for in the home and child abandonment.  So, we can see that Pastor Gregorio will have his hands full.  Please pray that we can make a big impact on the children and families in this community.

Today is a special day for me.  A student from the Help and Hope Center is presenting her first of a new weekly feature report.  Carment Alicia Rozo has been attending the Center in Rubio for about five years.  When I first met her I was taping video interviews of the children (see hers below the report).  She told staff after being videoed that she wanted to make a career of communication and we have been encouraging that pursuit.  She currently leads a radio program we support that reaches teens and young adults.  She also gives a video introduction on the Villa Bahareque photo gallery.  So, here is the Carmen Alicia report in both English and Spanish:

The Carmen Alicia Rozo Report

I am writing about a young girl named Yuletza.  Yuletza Yilibeth Martinez was born in San Cristobal on May 4, 1993.  Her parents are Lisbeth del Carmen Gomez and Gilberto Antonio Martinez.  She has two siblings who also attend the Help and Hope Center (a program of Andean Aid and the civil association Una Sonrisa Para Todos).  They are Juana Martinez who is ten and Brahyan Martinez who is twelve.  From the time she was very little she has lived in Villa Bahareque and is registered to attend El Chicaro school for preschool and continues studying there.  Actually she is in her fifteh year of high school at this same school, but today it is called Jose Felix Ribas.

Her goal is to graduate from high school and afterward study at a career university.  She would be delighted to study social communication.  Her hobby is listening to music.

Reporting for you – Carmen Alicia Rozo..

Until the next report.

Escribo acerca de una joven llamada Yuletza.  Yuletza Yilibeth Martinez Gomez nacio en San Cristobal el dia 05/04/93.  Sus padres se llaman Lisbeth del Carmen Gomez y Gilberto Antonio Martinez.   Tiene 2 hermanos los cuales tambien asisten al Centro de Ayuda y Esperanza (Una Sonrisa Para Todos).  Estos niños se llaman Juana Martinez que tiene 10 años de edad y Brahyan Martinez que tiene 12 años de edad.  Desde pequeña vivio en Villa Bahareque e ingreso a estudiar a los 5 años en la escuela ”El Chicaro” preescolar y continuo estudiando alli. Actualmente esta cursando 5 año de bachillerato , en esta misma escuela pero hoy en dia le cambiaron el nombre a la escuela , ahora se llama “Jose Felix Ribas”.

Su meta es graduarse de bachiller y luego estudiar una carrera universitaria.  Le encantaria estudiar comunicacion social y su hobbie es escuchar musica.

Encuesto para ustedes – Carmen Alicia Rozo.

Hasta el proximo reporte

It’s done!  Andean Aid has taken a third ownership in a restaurant (name to be determined).  This venture will allow diversity in the funding of our organization by providing an earned income stream to supplement contributions.  This means we still need you.  Individual donors are the backbone of any non-profit organization.  It allows us to fill in the gaps and fund projects we might not otherwise be able to provide.

The following facts come directly from the UNICEF web site and demonstrate why we do what we do.  Note that issues for children are family issues also.  Andean Aid touches on each of these issues through our Help and Hope Centers, counseling services and community social services projects.

Issues facing children in Venezuela

• Infant mortality has been reduced, but maternal mortality is still high, even though 94 per cent of births occur in health facilities.
• At least 21 per cent of children under five are malnourished to some degree.
• Pregnancies among adolescents are common, and most are unwanted pregnancies.
• Thousands of children are left homeless and without school due to frequent natural disasters.
• Violence affects many children and women. In most of the cases, abuse happens at home.
• Children and families living along the Colombian border are affected by the armed conflict.
• Many children are left out of the school system, especially indigenous children and children of African descent.
• Thousands of children have not been officially registered at birth.
• The rate of vertical transmission of HIV/AIDS is estimated to be 3 per cent. The prevalence of HIV among 15-25 year-olds and among women has increased.

Issues facing children in Colombia

• Approximately 3 million people (75 per cent of them women and children) have been internally displaced by violence in the past 15 years. In 2004 alone, more than a quarter million people were forced from their homes. Displaced populations have little access to safe water and to basic health and educational services.
• One third of all children are anaemic. Stunting affects 14 per cent of children under age five; 7 per cent of newborns have low birth weight.
• Despite a law prohibiting the use of children under age 18 in the National Army, there are still an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 child soldiers in urban militias and other armed forces.
• Landmine use is increasing, posing significant risks to women and children. Landmines kill at least three people in Colombia each day.
• Native American and Afro-Colombian populations suffer the highest rates of poverty, and are twice as likely to have been affected by violent armed conflict.
• Rates of domestic violence are alarming: Nearly 40 per cent of women have been attacked by their male companions. Sexual abuse of children under age 18 increased 56 per cent between 2000 and 2004.

There are an estimated 120,000 to 200,000 Colombian refugees living in Venezuela, most of them in the Colombian frontier where we serve.

Arepas and empanadas to develop body, mind and spirit of poor children in the Andes?  Hmm, we shall see.  Andean Aid is considering a third share of a new restaurant in Rubio, Venezuela to provide earned income to help support the ministry.  Contributions from supporters make up the backbone of any non-profit organization but an income stream can help fill in the gaps for a time and provides diversity in the fundraising plan.  It may even allow us to open additional Help and Hope Centers with future donations.

The other two owners in the plan are the Christian radio station in Rubio and the Family of God Church.  Andean Aid has a stake in the radio station where we produce two programs, one reaching children and the other reaching teens and young adults.  Ana Carillo, Pastor of the Family of God Church is the director of our Venezuelan Civil Association, Una Sonrisa Para Todos.  So, all principals in the plan are familiar and are motivated for the others to succeed.

Children at our Help and Hope Center face a huge disadvantage in the area of mathematics.  There are no resources at home to assist with this subject and the children fall into a spiral of failure.  A child that fails one year of math is faced with making up the failed year along with a whole new year of math – an untenable situation.  This was the circumstance for Javier Caceres.  To address this problem the Help and Hope Center has hired a mathematics teacher to provide intense tutoring.  The result has been outstanding.  Javier is now passing both years of math and many other students are benefiting as well.

I need to weigh in on the debacle of the Idaho group charged with kidnapping the children in Haiti.  Andean Aid does not do relief work such as assisting after a catastrophe like earthquake.  And Haiti is not in our region of service.  Yet, the actions of this group hurt all organizations that work with children.  It should also be a wake-up call about how the relief efforts of these disasters are handled.

During my career I’ve been involved in emergency management in several areas.  In the Navy I was responsible for helping to manage damage control aboard a submarine and in the nuclear power industry I held several positions to help alleviate emergencies and taught emergency planning.  A basic tenet in each case was that those with a specified role handled the emergency and those without a role were either evacuated from the area or contained.  We did not open the doors to the nuclear plant during an emergency and allowed unqualified people to “do what they thought best”.

So, my question is, what was the Idaho group even doing in Haiti?  Why do unqualified people and groups flock to the scenes of disasters and more importantly why are they allowed to flock to these areas?  My guess is that the answer lies in the lack of a centralized point of control.  There is no one person or entity in control.

Did the Idaho group have good intentions?  Probably.  But, in the end, they did more harm than good.  The legal system in Haiti was tied up deciding what to do with them.  Police had to arrest, guard and feed them rather than participate in the search and recovery effort.  They are lucky that all they endured was a few days in a jail cell floor.  There are areas of the world where the punishment would be harsh and swift for taking children across international borders without documentation.

I want to assure our supporters and contributors that Andean Aid takes great pains to ensure that we operate within the law in the countries where we serve.   We have formed a civil association in Venezuela and we are fully documented to provide our services to children and families.  Our president Ana Carillo and director Gaby Andrade (see their bios on the Directors and Staff Page) are diligent in keeping abreast with changes in the law and we work with very good child welfare attorneys in Venezuela.  We work hard to earn and keep your trust.

The speed networking session at lake Forest College was excellent.  The organizers did a great job of streamlining the process to make it easier and more productive for both the professionals involved and the students.  I got to meet more than twenty-five great students with a broad array of college majors and interests.  There were thsoie majoring in English, Spanish, Sociology, International Relations, Business and Economics.  It was refreshing to see how many of them are interested in either a career in the non-profit sector or want to be in a position to give back some day.  They certainly brightened my day!

This is a school property that Andean Aid would like to acquire.