Medellin is Colombia's second city and the capital of the department of Antioquia. Antioquia slogan is "the best educated " but in stark contrast to this slogan, there are wide economic disparities. In Medellin are many districts (Comuna)
with great poverty.
Comuna 13 (San Javier) is a district that consists of 19 neighborhoods (barrios).
There are safe neighborhoods with good welfare, but most neighborhoods are downright unsafe and there is great poverty. Sometimes people have to live on what they find on the streets. We personally know people who live on less than 20,000 pesos (± 10 USD)
per week.
To counteract this a little bit, we started the project Realimentar.
What is Realimentar?
In brief exchange recyclable material for food.
Everyone produces waste. This waste contains also recyclable material. For example plastic bottles, plastic bags, containers, glass bottles, etc. This material is valuable for two reasons. It is reusable and reduces waste. We 'buy' it and the value it represents
we reimburse in food.
An example: someone delivers 500 grams of plastic bottles, a kilo of glass and two pounds of scrap metal. This represents a value of 2,500 pesos. That equals a pound of rice and 5 eggs.
We sort the recyclable material further and sell it to the wholesaler. With the income, we cover the costs of the project. Think of purchasing food, transportation, etc. It is intended that the project is self-sustaining, but for a good start but we need help.
We want to apply for grants from the municipality, donations of food from companies, etc.
