All
projects have ups
and downs, good phases and stages of countless
bad ideas when it
seems that everything is in stagnation.
After a bad phase when it seemed that nothing happened like I had envisioned
and it seemed
everything stopped,I took a deep breath
and thought, read and talked to some people about the subject and I decided to change, I
decided, not to leave my goals and my theme but
to change the association I had chosen. The
contacts with the association that
I had chosen did not produce any fruits as I hoped and wished and as I am from
Évora, I decided to invest in my homeland , in the city where I was born and live.
In Évora there is an association called : “ Pão e Paz “(
"Bread and Peace") which offers meals to poor people ,people that
live in exclusion and even homeless. This association is allied to a
Foundation, “ Fundação Terra Mãe “, (Mother Earth Foundation). This foundation
has gone through many difficulties especially monetary.
Thus, as it is still at an early stage
of their social responses, it seems to me to be the right place to try to tackle
this issue of exclusion, linking it to
poverty and hunger.
So, the main idea now is to visit the association, talk to the coordinator, try to understand problems, weaknesses, opportunities,
threats, which social responses are given ,who do they help, and the reason for the existence of this association.
I expect
I
hope this will be done this week,
when I return to Évora this week.
In terms of project intervention and because
the association in more focused on feeding people
in situations of poverty and
exclusion, I thought
about creating a” social kitchen “ to respond about the issues of hunger, poverty and exclusion. This kitchen would have a profitable part to make
it sustainable (where
the funds would revert to the
association) and an educational
/ occupational training
part to people
whom the association provides assistance.
All this requires a trainer and a technique team. In
the training team we could have a baker that would
teach people (homeless
or people in exclusion) how to cook and they
could even cook in the social
kitchen (which should have
a stove for three people for example) and monitors that would help in the technical part and in the integration of those people in the team.
In
the technical team we would have a sociologist who would deal with all
the matters concerning the project progress and other matters of housing
and employment to the evolution
of the target audience of the project
in order to continue to include them in
society along with a social
worker and a psychologist .
All this requires funds, but first we would
have to invest with the help of local newspapers and churches, making a public collection but
also with the help of foundations
and charitable associations that
exist in the region.
After this investment it would be necessary to build a tearoom where the people (that
the association helps) would work,
the idea would be: two hours to work on his / her lunch or
dinner that would be free and that would be
done in the social kitchen . The rest
of the hours of work
would be to cook with the help of a team
trainer for the tea
room that would serve the entire community of Évora and that would be served by these people in
order to integrate them in the community and educate
them not only to cook with what you have but with what you have to spend and
learn to live with
what you have (a group going
shopping with a budget and a monitor, another would make cakes, soups to everyone, etc.).
While
all this was happening, the team would build a database
with all the people that the association helps joining them into working groups (homeless, people in
poverty, unemployed, etc.)
so that , and through
interviews with candidates to find the "best way"
to integrate them back into society (arranging home,
job, etc.).
To achieve food to all this, we would have
to contact the Commercial Association
of Agriculture, and make an appeal to
the social responsibility of the firms so that they could give us some vegetables that would serve the people of the association to cook
their food and then even take it to their families. We might also ask cafes
or supermarkets in
the area to give us their leftovers
so they could cook or even make a
social responsibility agreement with them social.
As far as the food for the tea room is concerned ,it would be purchased with the money from the sales of the tea room and the rest of the money would be for the association to decide, taking into account the needs of their beneficiaries.
This project seems to me
to be viable and relevant , because besides having a profitable part , the city
of Évora is a very centered and Restoration Services and these people would have
the opportunity to experience this area.
If in the future all went well with profits and the people trained and
educated in order to save and to monetize they could even receive with their
work there, but that would be seen in the future. Until then, the staff trainer
and the technical team would have a very important role , helping to build a
more inclusive and "smiley"
future for these people that desperately
need help.
In terms of theoretical framework, I would detain on 4 key areas: social
exclusion, the paradigm of world hunger, the social answers (in which INNOVATE
is needed) and the issue of globalization (because there are already many areas
of the globe where the social kitchen is already being carried out) to
understand what can be learned from other countries.
Finally, I think this project has
everything to do with the
professorship where
it is inserted : “Globalization, Social Justice and Human Rights”. Projects such as "social
kitchen" already exist in many
countries all over the
world such as Brazil and even
in Portugal, but in
different shapes than those that I
want to present in my project. And what can we say about the
issue of Social Justice, can this
problem about exclusion, remain unsolved with people still living in poverty, hungry
and homeless in the XXI century, in the middle of this modern era ? How can
people still live with hunger, without a job? And homeless?
One of the basic needs is food, and it should be the first to be
solved . To demonstrate
the relevance of the study in
this issue of the professorship about
the Human Rights, I present here a quotation from the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights - Article 25, which I had the opportunity of reading:
"Everyone has the right to an adequate
standard of living, which guarantees,
as well as your family, health and wellness,
and especially food, clothing, housing, medical
care and social services needed. "(Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Article 25).
To conclude, I have not changed the theme or the main goals and objectives of my project,I
have just adapted it to the needs
of the time I have to finish
it and to the
needs that know that exist
in the area where I live and also to the easier and faster contact with associations in this area that I know and where I have always lived.
I hope to have more news soon and if there
is someone interested in
suggesting something, just write
:)
