Send Baru Students to Training School for a year

Dear Donors,

Thanks to your donations and interest, we have raised 2.424 dolars for the project "Send Baru Students to Training School for a year". We are confident that with your constant support, we will reach the goal of raising 14.000 USD.

The following is a brief summary of the progress of the project you have supported:

About the Training and Entrepreneurship School and the Students selection

The construction is finished. The equipment and tolls needed are already placed in the School, waiting for the students to start using them. We have filled the forms needed by the Energy Company to provide power to the School and we are waiting for them to connect the facilities to the transformer.

After inviting all the Islanders interested in attending the School, we received the completed forms and the National Learning Service Organization proceeded to register the ones who complied with the requirements.

158 people registered to study cuisine, table and bar, construction and electricity, 6 of which live in Baru town, located in the south part of the Island.

On April 10 and 14, respectively, the classes for cuisine, table and bar, construction and electricity started with the induction. The Students attend classes at the Hernan Echavarria Foundation offices in Santa Ana, until the power is connected in the Training and Entrepreneurship School.

About the Students

As we informed, 6 Students from Baru started their technical studies, 2 women and 4 men.

The ladies are studying careers related to tourism while the gentlemen are studying careers related to construction.

All six of them are single. 5 graduated from school last year and 1 the year before.

The men studying construction (2) and electricity (2), travel everyday in 2 motorcycles owned by their families. They all share the fuel costs.

The girls studying cuisine (1) and table and bar (2) don’t travel daily from Baru to Santa Ana. Because of the high costs of transportation, they stay with relatives and friends living in Santa Ana.

About the transportation support

Taking into account the special transportation conditions of each of the students and the fact that with the amount raised to the date ($5.179.363 Colombian pesos) we can only help one of the beneficiaries with the transportation for the whole year, we concluded that to be fair, we should distribute the resources in a way we can help the 6 of them.

This is why, starting on April 11 we will support the current beneficiaries with the money you all have donated, as we continue to describe, for the following 20 weeks of classes:

As the 2 girls have a place to stay in Santa Ana, they will be able to go home to Baru 2 times a week (in the middle of the week and for the weekends). This would cost $1.360.000 Colombian pesos per each.

As the 4 boys have to buy the fuel for the 2 motorbikes they use to get to Santa Ana, they will receive a weekly transportation benefit. This would cost $270.000 per each.

We will continue to post regular reports to keep you informed on the project progress.

With gratitude,

Ana Milena Ordosgoitia and the Hernan Echavarria Foundation team