It’s called Little Bridges and it’s in San Miguel. Since Christmas 2012, they have sought to strengthen ties between each other. How do you promote it?
The Little Bridges Foundation. of Saint Michaelcarries out all kinds of solidarity campaigns with a particularity: in addition to making aid possible, it seeks to generate a sustained link between the families that collaborate and those who receive the donations.
One of his last solidarity actions was a particular campaign so that 93 families of that municipality in the northwest of Greater Buenos Aires could have a computer and connect to the Internet from their houses. The initiative proposed donating symbolic money and as always, that those who helped and Those who received the technological tool met.
Via “Digital Window”the name they gave to the movement, the first contact between the parties was through a photo: as a first step, those who collaborated could see one of the family they were going to help.
The next step was for the donors to write a dedication and a letter, which it would arrive printed and together with the computer by hand of the beneficiaries.
“It was a solidarity initiative who built a bridge between families. The idea was bridge the digital divide and do it one way more personalized”affirms Mariano Enriquez, Director of Communication of the foundation.
The NGO did an intense job of computer refurbishment so that they are in optimal conditions. He also took care of carrying out an exhaustive survey at the time of select families who would benefit from this project.
“We wanted to give the computers to those who they wanted one and more they needed it. For that, they filled out a form that helped us choose them, and that is how the ones that needed this tool the most were left,” says Mariano.
The campaign also helped the foundation to collect How are these families organized? With whom they have been working and collaborating for many years in the soup kitchens they sponsor: Saint Francis and Happy Frog, both located in San Miguel.
Unlike previous campaigns of little bridgesfrom the foundation’s web page each donor was able to see the family photos of the beneficiaries and thus know with name and surname Who was he helping?
It is not about choosing a family, but being able to see who receives each collaboration. “Behind each photo there is a world and a story“, says Enriquez.
“New opportunities”
“Dear González Family: We wholeheartedly hope that this computer helps you to be more connected with the world, open up new opportunities for them and allow them to learn many new things day by day. Take care of her a lot. We want them! Alex, Luis and Rosario“, says one of the letters that the foundation received from one of the families that collaborated with the campaign and that was delivered to the Gonzalez family.
They explain from the foundation that there were different ways to help to carry out this solidarity initiative. A computer could be donated for the cost symbolic of $6,000 Through the sponsorship of a family beneficiary. The other possibility was to contribute what each one could for the campaign (100, 200, 500 or 1,000 pesos).
The Little Bridges Foundation was born in October 2012, at the initiative of Pilar Medinaprofessor of literature and founder of the institution.
Pilar wanted and felt that she had to do something more for those who suffer the most. Something different. Around Christmas it occurred to him to organize the first campaign: “I want to be your Santa Claus”, that a decade later, in this November 2022, it is already a classic and is beginning in views of the approaching Holidays.
At the beginning of what would end up becoming a charitable civil association, he formed a work team to carry out the dream of 600 boys from four different kitchens. For the first time, everyone wrote a letter to Santa Claus expressing their Christmas wishes and they received a new gift in return, bought especially for them, and with a label with their first and last name.
This was just the beginning. then came “My school box”a campaign with a similar system that impacts another very sensitive moment in the life of any child: the start of classes. In this other move that is repeated year after year, they try to put together school kits with everything that each child will use in their school year.
Another personalized campaign is the one that the foundation usually does to Children’s Day. Each child in the soup kitchens that he sponsors receives a metallic balloon inflated with helium, attached to a new toy, with a dedication written by the donor on a sheet where the beneficiary wrote his name. Helpers must choose one of these sheets and then fill it out.
Today the fundamental structure of the foundation is made up of several members with well-defined roles but above all with a commitment “from the heart” -as they define it- with a cause that they take and feel as their own.
What comes for the foundation is to get many kids receive the gift that they asked Santa Claus. There are many ways to participate to collaborate and bring everyone their Christmas gift.
“You can be Santa Claus and this Christmas to receive the smile and happiness of a more than special little person”, they write on the foundation’s networks in a call that aims, in addition to helping with money and donations, to link up and -precisely- build bridges between very dissimilar realities .
