ESPIGAS: A SOLIDARITY PROGRAM WHERE BOTH MAKE A PAIR.

Mato Grosso is an extraordinary NGO from South America, and that's why Espigas supports it!

Founded in 1967 by Father Ugo from Italy, Mato Grosso is now the work of 400 volunteers on-site who fight extreme poverty in over 80 centers in the most remote areas of the White Cordillera in Peru, the Quilotoa region in Ecuador, and the north of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia.

Thanks to their commitment in various fields such as educational projects, work training, healthcare, electrification, micro-enterprise development in art and crafts, and reforestation, they contribute to improving the quality of life for thousands of impoverished people.

To finance Mato Grosso's projects, hundreds of young volunteers from northern Italy's villages give their time in the evenings, weekends, and during vacations: doing small jobs like painting, cleaning, collecting objects, and reselling. All funds raised are sent to Latin America "for the poorest." The volunteers living on-site, some for over 20 years (!), are sponsored by their family and friends. The NGO has no operating costs! Maximum efficiency in serving local populations.

The San Luis Center, located at nearly 3000 meters in Peru, near the town of Chacas, hosts over 100 young people in boarding school or half-board and trains them in sculpture, painting, sewing, and market gardening. For some of these young people, rejected by their families due to physical or mental disabilities, it’s a lifeline. Not only does the center help them realize themselves through learning artistic techniques, but it also provides them with a salary. When they return home on weekends, they are no longer seen as a burden.

At San Luis, Mato Grosso builds adobe houses (a local, traditional construction method using earth and straw) for the most disadvantaged. The NGO also runs an exceptional care structure for young people with severe disabilities.

In the village of Chacas in the White Cordillera of Peru, Mato Grosso has created several cooperatives and a modern hospital.

The Lima Cooperative specializes in producing design objects in collaboration with Italian designers, sold worldwide: chairs, tables, bookshelves, doors, beds, armchairs, various objects...

At the Huachucocha farm at 4250 meters, near the pass of the same name, the NGO raises over 30 cows and calves, producing excellent cheese for the entire community.

In Bolivia, in the small village of Escoma, a young Italian couple runs the center, which includes a carpentry cooperative with 30 employees, greenhouses, and some livestock that provide food for elderly people abandoned by their families.

The NGO also runs a large reforestation program. Each year, dozens of hectares of local species are cultivated in greenhouses and replanted to prevent desertification, soil degradation due to water runoff, and to recover wood for the cooperative.

THE 2€ MAKE A PAIR!

In 2020, Espigas financed woodworking tools (gouges, chisels, rasps, scrapers, and burnishers) for the Mato Grosso center in San Luis, Peru.

To learn more or to make a donation, you can contact the NGO at the following address:

http://operazionematogrosso.org/
info@operazionematogrosso.it