Many children in Guatemala are thanking Eugene Oregon’s NextStep electronics recycling programme. Over the past six years, NextStep has provided almost 3,500 Guatemalan children with computers collected from its recycling campaign.
Maria Antonieta Ixcoteyac Velásquez is a social worker who co-founded INEPAS (an acronym for the Institute of Spanish Language and Social Aid Programs), a programme that uses proceeds from a language programme to improve education for children and teens throughout Guatemala. INEPAS, based in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, is one of the partner organisations to NextStep. This week, Velásquez is visiting the U.S. to share information with NextStep employees and volunteers how their contributions are working to change the lives of those living in one of the most poverty stricken regions in the world.
“The development of a country is proportionate to the development of each of its inhabitants,” Velásquez said in a speech Monday night.
Velásquez also incorporated a visit to NextStep’s donation center and refurbishing operations on Tuesday, where staff and volunteers loaded 300 computer systems, 30 laser printers and peripherals shipping containers headed for Quetzaltenango.
NextStep serves local organisations as well as those in disadvantaged and underdeveloped regions around the globe. The programme distributes approximately 70 percent of its repurposed computers to local people and organisations in need, Executive Director Lorraine Kerwood said. The other 30 percent are distributed with help from Partners in Solidarity.
“It is amazing the impact access to technology is having on the children,” Kerwood said.
For more information on NextStep, visit: nextsteprecycling.org
|
|
