August 25th, 2012
Take a minute to read about the importance of donating clothing to the people of El Talon: clothing and shoes in Cartagena and its surrounding areas are much more expensive than in other regions of the country because Cartagena is a huge tourist destination. As we all know, everything that has to do with tourism is very expensive. For example, when we go to Disney World in Orlando, everything is overpriced because it's where all the tourists go. It's similar in Cartagena; everything from food, clothing, shoes, transportation, and homes are overpriced. What some people do is that they go to Medellin, where everything is usually much cheaper than Cartagena, and they buy a lot of clothing to bring back to Cartagena to sell to those that can't afford it. This business is popular during Christmas, which is usually when people shop for clothing. The prices for the clothes can vary, but an example is this: four shirts and two jeans from brands that are not too recognized can cost about 600-700 thousand pesos ($300-350 USD); the reason why people pay this is because the vendors give them the option of paying it off throughout the year.
People usually wear the clothes for about three to four years, and then they buy more clothing using the same method. However, many people cannot afford to do this because of a lack of funds; they don't have enough for food, utilities, school (you cannot just "check-out" books at the school library, you must purchase them), uniforms, rent, etc...so what makes you think that they'll spend their little amount of money on clothing when they barely have enough to eat? I believe that Beyond the Wall does a good deed because we provide them with clothing that really helps them out; some of them can go to job interviews with what they receive, others receive shoes so they won't have to walk around the contaminated mud (for those that have been there know that this is a huge problem), children receive toys that their parents may never be able to afford, and some simply appreciate the needed extra clothing. Yes, there are plans of expanding into other areas of social work; for example, this year we want to implement sexual education into the end of the year's distribution event. In the future, we would also want to eventually partner up with other organizations that will help them with the infrastructure of their homes, we'd like to help them find some work using their own resources, but everything takes time and patience.
Before helping out a community, whether it's in Colombia, Brazil, Angola, Romania, or even here in the United States, one must first realize what the needs are, because EVERY COMMUNITY IS DIFFERENT, even in Colombia. The needs in El Talon are completely different than the needs in the slums of Medellin, and the needs there are completely different than those living in poverty in Cartago, Valle. It's easy for us in the United States, in the comfort of our home, to quickly find a solution for everything...but in reality, everything is much more complex and investigations/studies must be done
before reaching a favorable solution. All in all, El Talon will always receive Beyond the Wall's help.
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