How would you feel donating to a cause knowing that your contribution is not simply filling a temporary gap but rather part of front-loaded funding for lasting change?
When I moved to La Paz, I asked myself one question: “How does my presence impact the local community and what do I need to do, individually and collectively, not only to offset my imprint, but rather to uplift the town that brings so much joy and peace to our lives?” Fast forward to now, I have been part of a group focused on answering these questions through actions, cultural sensitivity, and long-term thinking.
Over the last year, we have selected a pilot school in La Paz, and what initially started as a humble program aiming at increasing attendance in secondary schools is now a community project, building a production kitchen to feed children from marginalized backgrounds across La Paz.
Wanting to focus on that area of education, we each had pretermind notions of what was needed, however, once we spoke to the staff at the schools, we realized that there was a much more delicate and urgent matter to address: feeding existing students from extreme socio-economic backgrounds, often attending school on a day-to-day basis without food.
Currently, we are working with Jose Vasconcelos Secondary School, and during our research, we identified that children from five different socioeconomic neighborhoods attend this school. To give you some perspective, many students attend with modern-day technologies such as cellphones, but a smaller percentage of students are from neighborhoods with no running water, on an empty stomach, which causes both physical and psychological issues. These are problems that teachers and other faculty members have expressed their deepest desire to be addressed first, and for the right reasons. Problems that can be fixed by providing nutritious, fresh, and varied meals to these children.
Working as a team, the school has provided us with an empty classroom previously used as storage to build a production kitchen, which will not only have the capacity to make and feed all of the students in need at Jose Vasconcelos, but also expand into making fresh nutritious food to be delivered to others schools with similar needs in the vicinity. Currently, 60 out of the 420 students who attend the afternoon shift require this assistance at our school.
Together, we strategized. Before launching any official program, we wanted to provide a solution to the community that preemptively addresses the challenges we are expected to face as we navigate this journey. We asked ourselves questions such as: How can we prevent or eradicate the constant need to fundraise and let go of the reliance on donations? How can we ensure that once we start the program, we can consistently operate without interruption of service or quality? How do we ensure that we are providing value and not creating dependency?
Each of our projects is designed with short-term and long-term strategies, resolving problems we’ve witnessed nonprofit organizations struggle with. This will be achieved by setting up financial structures within each program, creating an interdependency rather than a dependency.
So far, we have received a lot of love and support, a brand new fridge/freezer combo donated by the Club Crucero, a used gas stove to be used as a backup, donated by a resident, labor for electrical needs in collaboration with Juan Torres Moreno, president of the electrical association ADES and labor for plumbing by Antonio Galvan. All of whom have been collaborating in some capacity since we started on this journey. By we, I mean FIF- Fundación de Iniciativas Filantropicas (Philanthropic Initiatives Foundation).
FIF is a grassroots non-profit organization that I co-founded, dedicated to fostering positive and sustainable change within the public schools and surrounding communities of La Paz.
Our team has been working on this project for over a year with the collaboration and dedication of principal Antonio Bareño, assistant principal Romualdo Ramírez, student social worker Benita Ortiz Becerra, and the rest of the staff members.
If you have questions about our strategies and plans, contact me directly.
For now, I invite you to contribute to this kitchen project to ensure, before starting construction, that we have enough to at least operate for a full year. We have an ongoing fundraising campaign to start construction, ready to serve food in September.
Let me ask you again: how would you feel donating to a cause knowing that your contribution is not simply filling a temporary gap but rather part of front-loaded funding for lasting change?
We officially launched our GoFundMe campaign on June 18, 2025, by reaching out to local businesses in La Paz, inviting them to join our movement. We are very grateful that our first donation came from Dulce Romero, La Paz’s favourite bakery, who instantly donated $10,000 pesos to kick-start the campaign.
To successfully and effectively run this program, we calculated the operating cost from launch to completion to be approximately $3,000,000 MXN. Imagine this amount as a seed capital required to launch this kitchen into a trajectory of self-sustainability for years to come.
This amount will cover building costs, a year of operations, staff costs, maintenance, an emergency buffer, and, more importantly, the resources to create a social enterprise within, aimed at generating funds to run the program without relying on donations in the long run.
This program is structured under the principles of “Sustainable Philanthropy,” and your generosity today not only helps us build the kitchen and feed these children but is a strategic investment in our community’s capacity to feed itself, learn, and grow independently.
To join our effort and contribute, you can donate today through our GoFundMe campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/f/pancitas-llenas-programa, scan the QR Code attached or directly to our organization’s bank account: Clabe 136040729745200118. Our RFC: FUM241007193
From the children, our team, and me, Thank You for your participation in a smarter, more evolved, and ultimately more impactful form of philanthropy. – Naailah Auladin for more on my work: www.naailahauladin.com or reach me on WhatsApp at: +52 612 141 8002.
Naailah Auladin is a life and relationship doula in La Paz, specializing in guiding individuals and families during periods of emotional trauma, crisis, and mental unrest. She focuses on teaching and inspiring individuals to take responsibility and ownership in participating in their civic duties, focusing on the well-being of the self first, as she believes that fostering and maintaining well-managed emotional, mental, and physical health is our first civic duty.