Learn about the story of Luli Avellaneda, one of the many protagonists who make the dreams of many of her neighbours possible…

 “I was born in Paraguay, Ciudad del Este, I don’t know my country because I was brought over when I was very small, at the time of Peron… In my childhood I had many nice things, I was raised by my grandparents and an aunt because my parents worked all day. My childhood memories are the best, I was spoilt…”

“…My idea was to study, but I couldn’t because I had to work, so I looked after an old lady during 5 years”.

Luli Avellaeda y (…) outside the office of Comunidad Organizada (Organized Community)

“Until 21 I lived in Lomas de Zamora with my aunt, I took small courses and continued to work until I came to the neighbourhood,  30 years ago…at 21 I came to the neighbourhood…”

 “I went to the neighbourhood for the first time in 78. I went with my boyfriend and we brought a plot of land there, a short while later in 80 y married and went to live over there. I was 21 years old. We decided to move to this neighbourhood because my husband and his family lived in Cuartel V. In that moment our economic situation allowed us to buy a plot over there, where we still live.                                            
 “The first time I went to the neighborhood I had a very sad sensation, it was very hard for me to get used to it. I had been brought up in a neighbourhood that had all the commodities, electricity, water, gas, it was Lomas de Zamora at 4 blocks from the train station, And when I came to the neighbourhood I found it had no electricity, nothing…the neighbourhood was just starting…it made me very depressed I wanted to go back to Lomas de Zamora”
 “Today remembering is nice but my first impression was not nice… and we where all in the same situation, we all came from elsewhere, immigrants from other provinces, each one  with an illusion of building his home here and be the owner of where they lived. There was that sensation, like an illusion, an expectation of owning something real.

I’ve been married for 30 years, in my family we are 5, 3 children, my husband and I. We have to girls and a boy. Now my daughters live at home too with a grandchild and my son-in-law so I have one more in the family.

Working in the neighbourhood is very nice, first you get to know the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who are those who live in these five neighbourhoods, today if you ask me, I know the five neighbourhoods perfectly, everyone know everyone, we go and drink mates together at each others houses, there isn’t much left… in each meeting that we do we meet more neighbours.

When the gas came it created a real important growth in the neighbourhood, a lot of changes in every sense, improvement in living standards for those neighbours that joined the programme-because there still are some neighbours who hadn’t joined and aren’t connected to the natural gas network.

“One of the most important changes, for example, that the value of the plots, the houses, increased and as a result changed the way in which the other neighbours look at us, it was very positive…”

“Today if people come and ask for a plot in the neighbourhood, the first thing they ask is if it has gas natural, so you realize that there are people that look at us better, that we have one of the commodities that people look for”.

 “In my house in particular there was a big change when gas came, because I used gas cylinders before, one for the kitchen, one for the hot water tank and one for the stove so the budget on gas was a lot, now with natural gas I use the same and spend a lot less, so you realize the change…also you don’t have to think on a Sunday about whether you will have enough gas and where to buy another cylinder if you run out… or if it runs out in the middle or at the end of a month and you don’t have money to buy a new one, your left with nothing…”. 

 “The change for everyone is immense, even more when you come to the neighbourhood knowing what it means to have natural gas… like me… I came from a neighbourhood who had natural gas y lived 25 years in the neighbourhood without that commodity… so when at last we had gas, for me it was a great satisfaction…the same for everyone over here…”.

 “I come from a background of working in social issues, my first social job was to be president of a corporation of the neighbourhood, I was also a Sunday school teacher, coordinator of Sunday school teachers, I worked for quite a few years for the network of containment of family violence (RECOVI), all this experience made me realize the needs that people had, and that you can’t just do anything to improve something… you need everything…”

“When they invited me from RECOVI to participate in the gas Project, it seemed to me really interesting because I felt that it could be useful , I felt that a lot of the community knew me, so I could go and propose to them that they trust in me, it was my opportunity to bring my grain of sand
I think that the gas experience was a very important learning experience for everyone, for the neighbours who where organizing people, who worked in each block, and for everyone who did something, we realized that there are a lot of people who can help and change reality.
 I continue with the same motivation that I started to work with ever since I moved, today there are a lot of things that are missing in the neighbourhood, water, sewages, I have a lot of energy, I don’t like not doing anything and just thinking, I like going out and being active, its what I always discussed with the other neighbours, it doesn’t seem that you need to analyze a lot, you need to go out on the streets and do…”
 “On the other side, I realize that there is a lot of bureaucracy in the way, from the government for example, there are a lot of obstacles that generates a barrier and creates disincentives… you ask yourself why these obstacles exist If I’m not asking a job to be done or something for myself, I am asking it for my neighbourhood, for everyone…”
 “It World be good to have more support for social organizations who work for the community…”
 “The economic aspect is an other obstacles, finding funding for a project is not easy and its fundamental, without money you don’t do anything…”
 “Today Comunidad Organizada, after bringing gas with FPVS, after nearly six years of work with the neighbours, has reconstituted itself into a cooperative, and my neighbours have chosen me as the president of the cooperative, in that way today I am in front, working to bring water and sewage networks, we know that they are long term projects but we also know that if there is a desire for it, if there is a good will, things will work, from the state as from the neighbours”.
 “As advice I would tell the neighbours of the neighbourhood who also want to do something, and who are organizing themselves which is not an easy task, it’s possible, you have to try to work together with a common goal, you have to create a consensus in between everyone with respect to what there is to do…” 
We all know that there are and will always be differences, when we started the Project there was a huge diversity of opinions, nether the less, we worked on what we wanted to achieve and the only thing we discussed was the way we where going to reach all the neighbours.. .
 “Even though the economic situation is the most complicated, you have to hope because it arrives… the gas arrived to this neighbourhood which was much bigger and more complicated…here you could, with perseverance and work”.

 “When there is a clear goal you can, nothing comes for free, its all work, effort, I’ve been to the point of tears and abandonment …but that doesn’t show only happiness and a passion for doing shows.