By Matthew Clausen | Vice President for Partnership Development
Small acts are going a long way in Colombia!
At the end of last year you saw a challenge and an opportunity and you chose to help make a difference. It worked. Thanks to you and 119 other generous contributors, we met the GlobalGiving 100-donor challenge and leveraged $5000 for the effort, bringing total donations for the New Heights in Volunteerism project in Colombia to-date to over $8000. New Heights is a revolutionary program that directs volunteers to where help is needed most. Your help enables more children to read, more battered women to find shelter and more ill to find comfort. One example of how Partners and volunteerism make a difference in Colombia stands out...
David Tapiero is not a typical Colombian. In a country where half the population lives in poverty, David grew up in Ciudad Bolivar, one of the poorest neighborhoods of the capital city of Bogotá, where he, like so many others, lived among gang violence and abject poverty. However, these were not the only obstacles that David faced. He was born with a disorder that eventually causes blindness, and at the age of 19, he got an infection that left him completely deaf.
In a country that offers almost no resources to disabled people, facing deafblindness and devastating poverty at first seemed insurmountable. However, David’s passion for learning and his great fortune of finding an organization dedicated to promoting the rights of deafblind people, has enabled him to not only pursue personal goals, but also to volunteer his time and act as a mentor and inspiration for others.
David is part of a Colombian volunteer network called PESCAR that acts as an on call resource to deafblind people and provides support services for various foundations. David’s spirit of volunteerism and his upbeat determination to reach out to others is contagious, but two months ago, David found he did not afford even the two dollars a day for transportation that would allow him to continue studying and working with PESCAR.
Partners of the Americas believes that people like David deserve a chance to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others. Through a small scholarship from the Florida-Colombia Partners of the Americas, David is able to continue studying and motivating and teaching other deafblind people to overcome their disabilities and be an inspiration to us all.
What comes next in the New Heights in Volunteerism project? In the spirit of leveraging resources, and using leveraged resources to get even more support, Partners is using the money raised so far to seek additional resources from the Colombian government, universities, nonprofit organizations and the private sector to continue to build a comprehensive program to promote volunteerism in Colombia and put dedicated volunteers to work to solve the most pressing local needs. Your contribution demonstrates our commitment to the project and is absolutely crucial in mobilizing additional resources. Please stay tuned for more information, and once again, thank you.
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