Pencils and Paper Galore!

Vital Stats

Danielle B

Waunakee, WI

  • people helped200
  • People Doing It 0

The Problem

Pencils and Paper Galore is a youth development initiative designed to meet the needs of the students of rural schools in Argentina by providing school supplies, clothing, canned food goods, and other needed items. I am particularly inspired to organize a project to better the lives of Argentine youth because I have been living and studying in Buenos Aires, Argentina as an AFS foreign exchange student for the past eight months. Throughout my experience I have had the opportunity to travel to many intriguing locations, including rural areas. My passion for improving the lives of others through community action projects is derived from my own humble upbringing on a dairy farm in a small, rural community in Wisconsin as well as my success with former self-initiated projects. I will be colaborating with APAER, Asociación de Padrinos de Alumnos y Escuelas Rurales, a non-profit community action organization based in Buenos Aires, in order to establish contact with the school officials of a rural school in a poverty stricken area of Argentina. School officials will then provide a list of requested items and services, which will dictate my collection efforts and if supplied, better enable them to provide an adequate education for their students. In order to acquire needed supplies, I plan to seek donations from my local 4-H club, the Ashton Go-Getters, the Waunakee High School Spanish Club of which I am a member, and other community organizations within my home town of Waunakee, Wisconsin. I plan to personally transport all of the donated and purchased items from Buenos Aires to the rural school. I look forward to the opportunity to visit the school, experience the learning environment, meet the students, teachers, and school officials as well as parents and other community members affected by my project. When I return to the United States in July of 2008, I plan to continue collecting goods and raising funds for rural schools in Argentina. In the future I hope to serve as the godmother of a rural Argentine school and take full responsibility for its well being and improvement.

Plan of Action

The idea for Pencils and Paper Galore was instigated by a simple visit to a non-profit organization's website. After browsing the website, I made contact with the organization and was astounded by the desperate needs of rural schools throughout Argentina. It was quite difficult to establish contact with good-will organizations in Argentina due to a variety of obstacles such as my age, my nationality, and a lack of understanding in regard to donated funds. Fortunately, near the end of my 11-month experience in Argentina, I met with two teachers from a Buenos Aires High School and the principal of another Buenos Aires high school who were interested in getting involved. With their help I was able to obtain the contact information I needed of three Argentine schools in the provinces of Chaco, Misiones, and Mendoza. Using the $250 Spring into Action grant money as well as the additional $250 donated by my local 4-H club, the Ashton Go-Getters, from Ashton, Wisconsin, I was able to make significant donations to each of the schools. The school in Mendoza will be receiving 500 pesos worth of textbooks, all of the textbooks needed by students in grades fourth through sixth at the school in October. Seniors from a Buenos Aires high school will be transporting the books and other needed goods in October. High school students from Buenos Aires as well as many of their teachers recently visited a rural school in Chaco, and using a 500 peso donation I made, were able to install a scientific lab in the school. The school met my donation and proceeded to purchase 1000 pesos worth of lab equipment and supplies. The final 500 peso donation was used to purchase school supplies, a first aid kit, dental health items, and non-perishable food for the 28 students and the teacher of a school in Misiones. This school lacks a roof and windows and the students often walk to school barefoot; however, as a result of the donation I was able to make, they now have access to all of the basic school supply items they were so desperately lacking.

Project Updates

Winning a DoSomething grant enabled me to donate a larger quantity of items to the three, rural Argentine schools I adopted. In addition to the $250 I received from DoSomething, I was granted $250 by my local 4-H club, and so I had 1500 Argentine pesos to spend on needed school supplies, textbooks, and other items related to personal hygiene.

Despite the multitude of obstacles I encountered as I attempted to establish reliable contacts with whom I could collaborate to institute my project, I was able to connect with three distinct rural schools throughout Argentina and send greatly desperately needed supplies, texts, and other goods. The students and their families were impacted positively by the donations I was able to provide them because without my help, students would be forced to go without consumable textbooks, library books, basic supplies, and dental hygiene items I sent. My project impacted approximately 200 students throughout Argentina.

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