El Refugio Project Proposal

Corporación El Refugio (The Refuge)

The principal aim of the Refugio Corporation is to train young people and adolescents in arts and trades in order to develop their talents and improve their standard of living and their personal and spiritual growth. An agreement has been established with an organisation run by the district government of the city of Bogotá which works exclusively with young people in marginal zones and which owns a house suitable for the development of training projects for youngsters in cultural domains.

The idea is to support each other mutually in order to accomplish our goals. The foundation's art and jewellery-making programme has been housed in these premises since January.

Having this opportunity to use premises with virtually no administrative expenses, we can re-initialise the projects with young people, all the more so because in this house painting, dance, music and theatre workshops are held. There is, however, a lack of a productive project, and this is a gap we can fill by offering a project in the field of jewellery-making.

Thus we feel it is relevant and important to reinitialise training for young people in the domain of jewellery-making.

1. The "Los Martires" area, where the premises are situated, has quite a serious problem with groups of young "delinquents" who, because of the circumstances in which they live on a daily basis, need sources of productive training in combination with preventive activities.
2. The productive programme "YouthSmiths" (Jovenes Orfebres) needs to reinforce its production team with young people who have the knowledge in jewellery-making to be able to support the group of young designers and manufacturers currently in the project.
3. Reinforcing the work of the corporation by means of a contract with the district government's Los Martires Cultural Centre (CACMA) widens our scope and gives us a positive image, useful when dealing with organisations like the International Migration Organisation (IMO).

IV. Specific Objectives

1. To train 20 young people from the Los Martires neighbourhood who are participants in CACMA programmes, in jewellery-making and design at basic and specialised levels.
2. To reinforce the "YouthSmiths" programme using the contributions of creativity and labour from the trained youngsters.
3. To begin to establish team-work and fair-trade culture conditions through the productive work of the young people.

V. How will you know when these objectives have been reached? What are the indicators of success?

1. A team of young people trained in the craft of basic and specialised jewellery-making with an initial production of 80 pieces made of silver and alternative materials.
2. A catalogue of jewellery with prices in order to market them to YouthSmiths clients, including a web-based catalogue.
3. The staging of an exhibition and graduation event where pieces of jewellery and new designs can be sold and to which NGOs, the town hall and businesses interested in supporting the productive and training work can be invited.
4. Certify the youngsters' training not only in jewellery-making but also in inductive workshops on fair trade, so that the legalisation and formation of the productive enterprise can go ahead.

VI. What risks do you think could affect the success of this activity?

1. The main characteristic of the commitment and contract made with the youth centre is to train young people jointly with its administrators. Not having access to economic resources (to pay teachers and purchase materials etc.) could jeopardise our actions and limit the accomplishment of the goals and objectives we have proposed together.
2. The "YouthSmiths" programme needs a team committed to faire trade and only young people seduced by the craft and with a clear idea of the goodness of the craft and associative work will give the result of an associative enterprise.

7. The economic proposal

Item	Description	Quantity / unit	Unit Value	Total value	Susila Dharma National	Refugio / CACMA
Jewellery and design trainers		192 hours	$7.81	$1,500.00	$1,500.00
Materials	see list of materials	20	$49.34	$986.83	$986.83
Design stationery	various	20	$13.02	$260.42	$260.42
Catalogues	design & printing	2	$182.29	$364.58	$365.00
Graduation event	invitations, catering, exhibition	1		$182.29	$105.00	$77.00
Snacks	a snack for each class	480	$0.63	$300.00	-	$300.00
Tools and equipment	various				-	$1,562.50
SUBTOTALS					$3,217.24	$1,939.50
Project total						$5,156.74

How will the Project continue once this grant comes to an end?

The "YouthSmiths" programme will carry on functioning, thus feeding the possibilities of work and employment for the new youngsters. The training programme will be in constant contact with the productive project so that the young people can appropriate the project and so that it is the youngsters themselves who promote and sustain its constant growth and development in the company of the Refugio Corporation.

Will this grant be received by a legal entity? Which one? If land needs developing, does this belong to a legal entity?

CORPORACION EL REFUGIO, Personería jurídica (legal status) No 01080 /ICBF

Banking Details:

The Foundation's current account cannot receive international transfers which means that money should be sent via Western Union.

Contact Information:

Nury Elisabeth Bonilla Ruiz;
Email: nuryeb[AT]hotmail.com • Funrefugio[AT]colombia.com
- Calle 24 No 27 a - 56 - CACMA

Tel: 2891172 - 310 7650457 Bogota - Colombia.

We confirm that the information given in this document is correct.

Post: Legal Representative

Corporación la Refugio - Calle 24 No 27 a - 56 CACMA

TELEFONO: 2891172 - 310 7650457 Bogota - Colombia.

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Update: Jul 17, 2008—cjs