ELEVATOR PITCH PLAN REAL
WHAT IS PLAN REAL?
The founder of Plan Real is Yajaira Huisjes. Yajaira has worked as an intern in Colombia for four-and-a-half months when she studied physiotherapy. She travelled for weeks throughout Colombia in her studies en visited a number of both big and small towns to get to know the culture and the people of the country. Yajaira realised the problem of the poor people in Colombia who cannot follow any or little education and therefore not having too much knowledge about things such as the rights they have.
Plan Real is a network keeping small subprojects together. This is done by means of a putting up a cultural centre in a poor area in Medellin. In the future, Plan Real also wants to have a general practitioner, a nurse and physiotherapists at its disposal, so that they will be able to help the habitants immediately.
In the cultural centre subprojects will be offered such as;
- Scholarship for Colombian students
- Legal Aid
- Workshops
- Courses
- Microcredit
A separate website will be made for the cultural centre. This will be a portal where all sorts of information can be found for people who need either help or support in Medellin. Promotion will be taken care of by the local media and promotional material will be spread out.
PERSONAL AMBITION
Plan Real wants to offer a better aid to people having questions that vary in Colombia. Our ambition is to set up a cultural centre in Medellin.
COOPERATING PARTIES
Local organisations, specialists, social workers, interns, the Colombian government and instances.
TARGET GROUP
Residents of Medellin
ADDED VALUE
Plan Real's added value mostly contains the fact that a cultural centre is being offered where people don't need to go to another instance for each problem. It's all under one roof and because of this Plan Real is able to offer people with a question for help the right aid or advice.
STRATEGY
Creating a network where cooperating organisations with common goals are able to help the residents of Medellin because every person has a right to aid or advice.
SHORT TERM
Plan Real will begin around December 2010. First, a location is needed. A location will not be hard to find since this will be offered by the government for free. After that a consultation hour will take place for 3 hours and 2 times a week.
LONG TERM
Opening a cultural centre where free aid and advice is offered so people will have a place to go to for workshops, courses or someone who can lend them an ear.
PROJECTS
Scholarship for Colombian students
A lot of students in Colombia who have a high education often have a hard time finding a job matching with their studies. This may be since they do not have a network at their disposal or just because they come from a lower class. This also goes for students who have graduated from physiotherapy.
In the Netherlands, junior students are able to register for the ESP (English school for physiotherapy) in Amsterdam. This education is located in the HvA next to the AMC. http://www.international.hva.nl / click here for more information . Accommodation will be taken care of. At the moment the right accommodation is still being searched for. Do you have a place to offer which is payable? Please contact us on planreal@planangel.org .
Plan Real wants to collect money in different ways to give students an opportunity who are behind in society. This will be done by organising benefit nights, cracking open piggy banks and offering services to collect money for the scholarship.
Students have already been selected. As soon as this stage has ended, we will look for new students after a positive evaluation. This project will start in the middle of December 2010.
Legal aid
Legal aid is offered to people who live below minimum wage and having questions concerning their rights in the broadest sense of the word.
Questions can be answered about:
- divorce
- adoption
- heritage rights
- welfare
For this project we have lawyers at our disposal who can give free information, education and advice to people who cannot afford this.
Problem
People often don't know they have a right to primary base health care.
An example: When the only breadwinner becomes handicapped by an accident at work, his family may find themselves in terrible conditions. This makes them uninteresting to employers. They have no chance to support themselves and their family. The law book of Colombia says that no distinctions may be made. However, this is not taken into account. The handicapped people are neglected. The violence a lot of women have to deal with in the Colombian macho culture also causes for a lot of problems. Plan Real's lawyer knows Medellin, he often encounters distressing situations. Our help will be received with open arms.
Possible solutions
There are definitely instances offering legal aid, but they are in the big city. These instances have opening hours from 10 am to 4 pm. Usually there are long queues which makes it hard to help all people. These are mainly the people who come from far away.
Because of the violence, Plan real needed to change its location twice. This is why we have found no suitable location yet. As soon as a new one is found, consultation hours will be held twice a week.
This is already a running project.
Workshops en courses
The workshops en courses which will be offered in the future are;
- Domestic violence, how to defend yourself
- Educative advice
- Cooking courses
- Computer skill courses
- Support groups for domestic violence, educational issues, distant mothers
Microcredit
By offering Microcredit we would like to give families with children the opportunity to improve on their financial situation so that the children will be able to follow an education. This way we are able to improve the future prospects of these children.
