Carl: June 2009 Archives

Travelling to San Carlos de Bariloche brought me from the Cuyo region into the Patagonia region, comprising the provinces Neuquen, Rio Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego.

I was able to view of the endless Patagonian plains, where very few people live, before arriving in Bariloche. It is known as 'the Switzerland of Argentina' and is visited by one million tourists each year.

It is indeed a beautiful region and the centre of the town has many temptations: nice hotels, restaurants and shops for the rich tourists that mainly come from all over Latin America.

Thanks to Gustavo Gennuso, I get to see another side of Bariloche, a side that stays hidden from the tourists. Not far from the centre, Gustavo shows me poor neighbourhoods where people live in very small houses, often with up to ten people together.

"Unemployment is very high here, and level of education is low. People don´t have high hopes for a good future. There is a high incidence of alcoholism and violence within the families. With the Gente Nueva Foundation, we try to develop the poor communities of San Carlos de Bariloche." Gustavo tells me.

Gustavo is one of the founders of Fundación Gente Nueva, a foundation that establishes schools in Bariloche and aims to give poor young people a chance to work through different strategies: education and training, inclusion in the formal labour circuit and development of micro-enterprises.

One of the schools built and run by Fundación Gente Nueva in Bariloche

More about Fundación Gente Nueva - and how SolarAid might be able to get involved - in my next blog.

Carl