2008's family
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Meet Gloria's family.
Oscar Alberto Avellaneda is Gloria's husband. He has a 9 year old daughter with another woman. Up until the end of 2005 he always managed to get hourly jobs so that he could give some money to help her and also to provide Gloria and his family with the basics. Unfortunately in 2006 it became too difficult for him to make enough money. In mid 2007 he decided to go to a farming area (Paz de Ariporo in the state of Casanare which is near the border with Venezuela) to look for a job.
What he didn't know then was that his 9 year old daughter's mum had sued him for child support and soon after he got to Paz de Ariporo, he was sent to jail and he's still in jail. He hasn't been sentenced yet but Gloria hopes he'll be released some time in 2009.
Gloria and Alberto have 3 children:
- EDUAR FAVIAN RAMIREZ CASTRO is the oldest one. He's just finished his primary school and is due to start his high school in Feb 2009, provided his parent can get him all necessary books and uniforms. His primary school teachers think he has some learning difficulties but unfortunately his parents haven't had enough money to have him assessed by a psychologist.
- KAREN JULIETH AVELLANEDA CASTRO is 5 years old and she's supposed to start pre-kinder in Feb 2009 but like Eduar, she might need to wait for another year while they manage to save enough money to buy all the materials and uniforms requested by the Pre-school.
- MARIA CRISTINA AVELLANEDA CASTRO is 15 months old. She can't crawl nor walk yet.
Due to the fact that Gloria has to look after her youngest 2 children mainly, she only works 1 day a week as a cleaner at other people's houses.
Gloria and her family don't own their own house. They live in the countryside about 2 hours away from Colombia's capital city (Bogotá) and about 1 hour away from the closest town - in an area where public transport is almost nonexistent. They rent a small house for $100.000 a month (aprox. AU$67), which they haven't been able to pay for the last couple of months.
Their other source of income is from Oscar Alberto's "job" in prison. He makes small key rings that he then posts to Gloria. Both Gloria and her oldest son Eduar then go to the closest town on Sunday to sell the key rings to the people who go to the Sunday mass. They've really been struggling for food recently.
This is what we'd like to do with your donations:
- Help them pay the rent for a few months
- Buy all school uniforms and materials for Eduar and Karen and make sure all school expenses for 2009 are paid for
- Buy enough food for Christmas and for a few weeks after that
More photos of Gloria's family will come soon.
PLEASE HELP US HELP GLORIA'S FAMILY! And make sure you make your donations by 19th December 2009.
All amounts will be appreciated. $1 is not too little and in Colombian Pesos is enough to buy 1 liter of milk, 6 eggs and some fruit.
To check the progress of how much money we have collected and to make sure that your donation is part of it, look for your initials in the chart that is to the right of the screen. We'll update the chart at least every Monday and Thursday.
MUCHAS GRACIAS. At the moment, Gloria is not expecting anything so we're sure she'll really appreciate your help, no matter what we manage to give her.
