Schools
Hoboken Teens Start Charity To Raise Money For Ecuadorian School
Hoboken native Olivia Yerovi, a Hudson School junior, led a group of more than a dozen teens from HoLa school to Ecuador to volunteer.
HOBOKEN, NJ – Olivia Yerovi, a high school junior at The Hudson School, recently started a community service project for local teens to volunteer at a school in Ecuador.
Olivia has founded Teens for Tupigachi (stylized as Teens4tupigachi) with her sister.
The two have been visiting Ecuador all their lives and have family there. However, the pair became increasingly concerned by the underfunded education in some of the more impoverished areas of the country — and decided to do something about it.
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They started the charity with the philosophy that "All children deserve a quality education in which they are encouraged to learn and be curious."
As part of their community service project and volunteer work, they do more than just raise money. Their goals include the logistics of purchasing materials to build new classrooms, designing new murals, and eventually handling the logistics of donating science and laboratory equipment.
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The two are also trying to organize ways in which other people can help out in ways more involved than just donations.
Olivia said she is trying to organize teen trips to the country for one to two weeks at a time. Each one of these trips would involve volunteering with the charity and taking a more active role in the construction processes.
HoLa Gets Involved
Last month, Yerovi worked together with several teens who attend another school in Hoboken, Hoboken’s bilingual K-8 charter school HoLa.
The group traveled to Ecuador with their families, and spent a day volunteering at a school there.
During this trip, they spent time engaging with the children of the school through crafts and activities.
HoLa donated over 100 books to the Ecuadorian school’s library.
Though much progress has been made, there is still a lot to do. As of now, the charity is receiving monetary donations and hopes that, in the future, will be able to offer service-oriented trips to Ecuador.
If you would like to learn more information about the organization and what their philosophy is feel free to visit their website in the link.
You can also check out their instagram page @teens4tupigachi:
https://www.teens4tupigachi.com/
