presenting…
The Casa de los Amigos 2010 Big Wish List
If we are going to continue our peace witness in Mexico and keep the Casa within everyone’s reach—and we’ve got the will and creativity to do it—we will need to think differently about our fundraising work. We are going to need to rely more on those who have generously supported the Casa over the years, and bring in new supporters. In 2010, we have plans to strengthen our Hospitality, Migration, Volunteer and Economic Justice Programs. We also have a long list of major repairs that we need to make to our building. Our community—your Casa community—is vast and dedicated, and we know that with everyone’s participation we can continue to meet our mission of peacebuilding in Mexico and keep making the Casa a better place for all.
Good people around the world like to bring things to the Casa de los Amigos that we need when they come to visit. Some are old friends; others have never been to the Casa before. Still others may not be able to come to the Casa at all, but want to support the continuing peace witness of the Casa de los Amigos. This list provides some good ideas for all of these groups and everyone in between. Please get in touch with us to ask any questions at all about the list, the work of the Casa, or to ask about our current priorities.
We’d like to start out with our five biggest priorities for 2010.
1) Help reserve space to house refugees in the Casa ($500 a month). In October, 2009, the Casa de los Amigos signed a landmark agreement of cooperation with the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees in Mexico City permanently reserving space in the Casa for refugees and those seeking political asylum in Mexico. The agreement recognized that the safe, supportive atmosphere that the Casa provides is the best possible environment for people in such traumatic situations. Knowing firsthand the desperate need for this space (there is not currently other designated housing for refugees and asylum-seekers in Mexico); we took two rooms off our reservation books. Please help the Casa perform this critical work!
2) Repair of the Casa’s famous glass tile façade, the windows of the George Fox Library, and many other significant maintenance projects. Architect Robert Limanek has spent three months in the Casa developing a proposal for a general overhaul of our historic building in a context of environmental sustainability. These repairs and improvements cost money, but they are investment in the next 50 years of the Casa de los Amigos and will allow us to serve as a green example for the entire city. Let us know if you’d like to help us fix any of our hardwood floors in the reception, volunteer office, dining room, guest lounge or library (about $500 each), fix the tile façade (about $4,000 dollars) or the windows in the George Fox library, repair and waterproof the exterior walls, or help us continue to improve our conference room (see below). Please take a look at the full list of maintenance projects that we want to get done in 2010.
3) Digital projector ($1,000). When the Casa moved to the big screen in 2007, we moved into a new era. Instead of having 5 or 6 people watching movies gathered around a 19 inch television, we could have 20 people comfortably watching a documentary in the conference room as we projected onto the wall. We think the proliferation of social justice documentaries is a great trend and an excellent way to get people together, raise conscientiousness around many topics, and stimulate thought and discussion. We show a lot of films with subtitles, so a big screen makes all the difference. The digital projector we had was already used and on “long-term loan” from a good friend; it finally broke, and fixing it would cost more than half of the value of the projector. These have come down in price lately, but are still around a thousand dollars. We can put a projector to very good use.
4) Dual flush low volume toilets for the entire house ($120 dollars each). The Casa has a whole bunch of old toilets that use 12 liters per each flush. We even have some really old ones that use 18 liters per flush—that’s a lot of water. They have served us well and been patched up many times, and we’re ready to get rid of all of them. We have already installed SIX new dual flush toilets in the Casa. They have TWO buttons for flushing; one for solids that uses about 6 liters of water, and another for just liquids that uses only about 3 liters. You can see why we’re interested in these, since as well as helping diminish the Casa’s ecological footprint, it would cut our water use from toilets by more than half. And our house has twelve toilets, so we’re halfway there. We can get these delivered here for less than 1,000 pesos each (right now that’s considerably less than $100 dollars), and get them professionally installed for a few hundred pesos.
5) Your generous financial donations for our operating expenses. That’s right. We have realized that few things are going to be as important in 2010 as receiving committed economic assistance from our supporters. The Casa has hired three new people, to move the programs forward and realize more of the potential of the Casa’s Migration, Economic Justice and Hospitality Programs. We’re also planning major repairs and improvements to our building. We’ll have to make some adjustment to our suggested donation scale in 2010 to keep up with inflation (the price of basic services in Mexico continues to rise), but we will continue to keep the Casa within reach of those on a tight budget. And as we move to house more migrants and refugees, the income from our beloved guest house is going to be a lower percentage of the Casa’s annual budget in 2010 than it has been in recent years. Any amount will help. This year, we are asking all of the people who believe in the Casa to show their support!
5 ½) New sink for guest kitchen ($550 dollars). The guest kitchen has an industrial size sink that has served thousands of volunteers, guests and visitors well for decades. However, last year it finally sprung a leak, and because it’s an aluminum sink it is difficult and expensive to weld. Silicone isn’t working. The sink is old and showing wear in other places as well, so we would like to get a new one as part of a general overhaul of the guest kitchen.
Mejoras a la Casa – Home improvements
Highly-skilled workers and laborers (electricians, tilesetters, plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers, etc). Are you or were you in the trades? Want to spend some time at the Casa? If so we’d love to talk with you. Our four-story house has 44 rooms, 11 bathrooms, and 6 patios. There’s work to be done around here.
Repairs and improvements to the conference room of the Casa de los Amigos. More and more Mexican and international organizations are taking advantage of this wonderful resource in the middle of the city. Our suggested donations for use are the most “solidarios” in the city—once, when we accidentally double-booked the room and had to help find alternative meeting space for one of the groups, I learned what most places charge! Many social justice groups come here that otherwise would have trouble finding any affordable space to meet, much less as central and agreeable as the Casa. We have a long list of things in the conference room we want to fix up, and some things we want to buy to make it an even more useful space. Priorities include taking off the “popcorn ceiling” of the conference room and painting the “new” ceiling, fixing the old metal window frames, replacing the old fluorescent lighting, buying new curtains, curtain rods, more folding tables and chairs, and installing a new ventilation system. In 2009 we received a generous grant for this work that started us on our way, and we have done much more work ourselves. With your help we were able to rewire and ground all the outlets in the conference room, paint all the walls, fix the beautiful parquet floor, and buy a new whiteboard. We love talking about which groups are using the conference room and for what purpose—ask us for more information if you are interested in helping us increase the use and utility of the “sala de conferencias.” Any amount towards this goal will help us fix up the conference room. We’ll need to raise a total of $1,000 dollars towards this project in 2010, and donations of all sizes are welcome.
Flash boilers for the entire house ($250 dollars each—we would like to get five). “Boilers de paso,” or flash boilers, are gaining popularity in Mexico. A flash boiler is a gas water heater that, instead of slowly heating water up with a moderate flame, heats water up very quickly to high temperatures when you want it. Once the water is hot, it stays hot for a long time. Flash boilers are very safe and use far less gas than the older models, of which we have FIVE. They also save water, as you’re not letting the shower water run while you’re waiting for it to heat up. These are a real investment but will eventually save money and reduce our gas and water consumption.
Complete set of general maintenance and power tools ($30-$60 per power tool, or $500 towards a long-term tools fund). We need it all: from new saws, hammers, wrenches and screwdrivers to a jigsaw, Skilsaw, electric drill, belt and orbital sander, and so on. Please let us know what you’ve got to gift to the Casa!
Solar water heaters for the roof ($500 dollars each). Our gas bills have gone up. We are looking at several ways to economize our hot water use, but since we live in a house that often houses fifty people we will always have substantial water and gas expenses. The 150- or 170-liter solar water heaters popular in Mexico (even in use at some tortillerías!) would really cut into our bills. We would like to get TWO or possibly THREE. Six to eight hours of sun can heat water for 24 hours. The gas water heater is set up in series after the solar heater, so we wouldn’t run risk of running out of hot water on cloudy or busy days. Of all the different alternative energy systems that we’ve looked at thus far, this is by far the simplest and most obvious choice.
Interior and exterior paint (about $12 a gallon). Yes, we mean it—would you like to give the Casa some paint? We painted many rooms in 2008, but would like to paint the rest of the private rooms, the main stairwell, the main patio walls and most of the rest of the house.
New mattresses ($100 dollars for a single, $150 for a double). When we are able, we buy new mattresses to replace the ones that are next in line to go. Yes, it’s really true: a man with a wooden cart, a bell and a donkey comes to carry the old ones away. We would much rather buy mattresses well before we absolutely need them. Financial donations for new mattresses are always welcome.
NEW blankets and bedcovers, sheets, pillowcases, and towels. Because we provide hospitality for many people, we frequently need to buy new bedding and towels for our guests. Financial donations towards these are always most welcome.
Las cocinas – the Casa kitchens
THERE ARE FEW other spots in the Casa that receive more stress than the volunteer and cleaning crew kitchen and the guest kitchen. Take a second and imagine what it would be like if every day the kitchen in your house was used to cook about 20 or 30 meals. The Casa now has more long-term guests than it used to, which has increasing pressure on the guest kitchen. We’re getting serious about it, however, and have a kitchen manager whose job it is to make sure everything is running smoothly in a kitchen often shared by more than a dozen live-in chefs! We want the Casa to be very, very livable, and everyone knows that this is a food-oriented environment which tends to bring the best culinary qualities out of those who come here. Improving the kitchens and keeping them in very good shape is an important part of creating an atmosphere in which people feel safe, relaxed and at home.
New kitchen supplies for all of the Casa’s three kitchens. Every single day of the year, we put all our kitchens and their contents to a serious test. We need stainless steel cookware, cast iron cookware, silverware in good shape, glass and other quality bakeware. We can also really use new kitchen appliances (electric mixers, Cuisinarts, blenders, coffee grinders, etc.)—we also love used items that are still in very good shape! We need quality cups, plates, and bowls. If you’ve got some kitchen items that you think would be good for the Casa, please let us know what they are, and if you’d like to get us a kitchen gift, let us know.
Energy-efficient refrigerator for the Casa apartment kitchen ($300). A very nice person gave us a brand-new, high-quality low energy “dorm fridge.” We planned to put it up in the Casa apartment and switch out the old apartment refrigerator, which uses a ton of electricity and is much larger than the apartment guests need, even the ones who really cook up there. But before we made the switch, we received a refugee family of five. We quickly realized that if we were going to continue to receive guests like these—and our partner organizations are mostly interested in sending us these most vulnerable cases—we were going to need another refrigerator in the guest kitchen. We receive many guests who aren’t here on vacation, can’t handle much Mexican food and for economy’s sake need to cook every meal. So that fridge is now a part of the guest kitchen, and we still need to switch out the old apartment frigo….
Drip coffee maker or two, for guest kitchen and apartment ($30 dollars each). We need a new one of these, and we would like to put one in the apartment and another in the guest lounge. These get a lot of use here and always come in handy.
Waffle irons. This one speaks for itself. Every kitchen should have a waffle iron.
New oven and sink for the Zim Apartment ($600 dollars). We also have a list of improvements and things we’d like to get for the beloved Departamento, but the oven and sink are at the top. The oven doesn’t work, and we have been advised several times that it is too old to fix. The oven and sink is one unit (the sink has also seen better days), so we have to replace that entire part of the kitchenette. We would like to get the most water and energy efficient model possible.
Furniture and appliances
Folding chairs and long folding tables; new or in very good shape (chairs, $12 dollars each; tables, $60 dollars each). Some of you may recall the Folding Table and Chair Benefit Concert and Talent Night—the event that started a movement. That table and those chairs are holding up beautifully after four years of daily use, but we still need much more! The Casa needs two more additional sturdy, long folding tables and could easily do with twenty or thirty compact, quality folding chairs. We have a lot of people over, all the time. We are often shuttling our folding chair collection back and forth from the dining room, where we eat breakfast and frequently hold meetings, to the guest lounge, where we hold our weekly potluck and other special events. Back and forth, up and down and up and down, and the old folding chairs that we have are in tatters. In 2008, over 130 people showed up to our Christmas caroling party, and as many came to our posada in 2009. We fit them all in the conference room. But with our set of 66 chairs in the conference room plus all the folding chairs in the Casa, we had still only seated about 2/3 of these groups.
NEW or very good condition rugs and runners. Do you have a nice rug that would look good in the Casa? A few of the private rooms could use them. Send us a photo!
Quality glass picture frames; various sizes. We’ve got lots of beautiful prints, art, and old Casa photographs that we would like to frame and set up in the private rooms and around the house. Needless to say, it’s hard to find room in the budget for picture frames.
NEW or very good condition outdoor furniture for the Casa’s main patio. No one sits out on the patio anymore! It’s because there isn’t anymore patio furniture. We would like guests to be able to use this beautiful space in the daytime. We are looking for a nice table and a few nice chairs that can get rained on.
Repair the Casa’s 50-year-old wicker furniture ($80 dollars per piece). We have four pieces of a beautiful set of wooden, wicker furniture. We don’t know exactly how old they are, but they show up in Casa photos dating back to at least the late 1960s, and seem to us like part of the house. They aren’t cheap to fix and reweave, but there are skilled artisans in our neighborhood that could do it very well. We would love to preserve these pieces, which now seem very much like part of the Casa.
Portable radio/CD player ($30 dollars each). The Casa could use two of these, including one in the conference room for use of groups, who frequently ask if we’ve got one they can borrow. And our salsa dancing classes up there, of course…
Hospedaje solidario
Contribute to our volunteer food and living expenses fund. We can’t say it enough—volunteers are the backbone of the Casa de los Amigos. They run the programs and the place, and they do it out of love. We do everything we can to help volunteers meet their basic needs, but they do not receive a stipend. We are able to offer an 800-peso monthly food fund—that’s 800 pesos each month to share for all the full-time volunteers who live and work here to buy staples like beans, rice, oil, salt and sugar. We welcome donations towards the food fund or for additional volunteer support.
Help house migrants in the Casa de los Amigos. TEN DOLLARS a night will do it. Did you know that the Casa houses at least one refugee or migrant almost all of the time, in addition to the refugee housing recently funded through the UNHCR? And we often have a half-dozen. We are often able to house these guests, clients of the migrant rights organization Sin Fronteras, in the men’s or women’s dormitory which minimizes the cost to the Casa. However, we also frequently house couples and people with children, and if we are able, we put these guests in private rooms. We work closely with Sin Fronteras to help discern which candidates would be appropriate for the Casa. Also, the Salvation Army and most of Mexico City’s government run shelters will not accept children, so people and families with children are frequently sent to the Casa de los Amigos by the police, Catholic churches, City Hall, and others. Our general policy is to work exclusively through other organizations, and not provide housing to people who show up off the street. Sometimes, however, we feel it is the best decision given the circumstances.
Four sets of new, nice warm blankets for a double bed ($200). The blankets we have in the Casa are fine for us and our guests. However, one of the rooms that we’ve reserved for our guests from the UNHCR, while very nice, is off the main patio and it can get quite cold in the winter! Considering that many people are coming here directly from a long stay in a migration detention center, we would like to stock this room with some nice warm blankets.
Food. Yep, we also gladly receive your high-quality, non-perishable and useful food! We offer breakfast each morning to our guests. Volunteers request 25 pesos per person, but for those who are at the Casa because they are refugees or migrants, the Casa and the volunteers foot the bill. So we can always use organic milk and coffee, good granola, cornflakes and other cereal, sugar, salt, tea, and more. Ask us!
Basic supplies. The Casa de los Amigos is a drop-off center for migrant support, and we also frequently help those in our neighborhood who are in need. We receive donations of clothes in good condition, canned or non-perishable food items, calling cards, and basic medical/health supplies such as band-aids, gauze, aspirin or ibuprofen, tampons, etc. Backpacks and suitcases are always needed. We try not to get too involved with lots of blankets but if you have some in good shape, we’ll get them where they need to go. New socks are especially helpful as the migrant trail is an outdoor rain and sun trial, and by the time they reach the Valley of Mexico many migrants’ feet are severely damaged.
Headphones with microphone for regular mic/phones plug or USB port ($15 dollars). These are needed to make calls on Skype. We try to keep the guest computer stocked with headphones, but they tend to fall apart and we frequently need new ones.
Charge up the Casa calling card. For our guests here through the Solidarity Housing program, we are able to offer them a telephone for local calls and to use their own calling cards and a computer with Skype. However sometimes in certain situations it is very useful for the Casa to have a calling card that we can use have our guests use. We buy calling cards online and they are the most inexpensive way to make calls from Mexico to many countries, even cheaper than Skype. Please let us know if you would like to help charge up the Casa calling card!
Poder organizativa
Wireless ready computer and/or monitor in very good condition. We still need some quality computer equipment! These days, if computer equipment is outdated or does not work well it can be more of a liability than an asset, so we are only looking for new or very nearly new, up-to-date stuff. Please let us know what you’ve got that you think we might need.
Amplification equipment (microphone, amp, cables and speakers). This is something that will make the Casa an even more functional conference space, and meeting and convergence space. We occasionally have large events in the conference room in which amplification would be helpful.
Charge up our Skype account! (Minimum $10 dollars) We’ve been at casa.de.los.amigos on Skype for almost three years. We use Skype for a lot of Casa business, conference calls, and any time we need to call the United States or elsewhere. When people show up here, migrants, travelers, refugees, etc. who have no money they frequently desperately need to call another country (this happens much more often than you might think—often if such people seek assistance from the police or the local government, the police bring them here). We often let them get in touch with their families using our Casa Skype account. When we opened this account we didn’t think much of how we would recharge it, and because the Casa doesn’t have a credit card we just end up doing it ourselves. We know that there are Casa people out there who would love to help us in this way, because they know that 10 or 20 dollars goes a long way on Skype!
United States postage stamps. When we send mail to countries other than Mexico, we have someone take them to the United States or Canada and send it from there. It is cheaper, faster, and much more likely that our post will arrive. We always need donations of US stamps, for our large, direct appeals and for other, general mail. Mexican stamps are also welcome!
Pay for a ream of Casa letterhead or envelopes ($40 or $60 dollars). This may not sound like the most exciting thing to finance, but these are things we frequently need.
La Biblioteca Jorge Fox and the Peace and Service Resource Center
Quaker and Peace/Nonviolence studies related books and publications. The George Fox Library (“Biblioteca Jorge Fox”) is a collaboration between the Casa de los Amigos and the Mexico City Friends Meeting, and has one of the best collections on Quakerism in Latin America. New and classic Quaker books are always welcome. We also have a good religious and general collection, and we would like to strengthen its focus on peace and nonviolence studies-related materials. Please ask us what we’re looking for, and let us know what you’ve got!
Nice bookends for the George Fox Library. We need two dozen or so nice, heavy bookends. They don’t all have to match. Got an extra pair in the closet or in the garage?
Help to bind and label our archived collections of Quaker periodicals. We have excellent collections of Friends Journal, Friends Bulletin, The Canadian Friend, Quaker Spiritual Thought, Inward Light, and the newsletters of many Quaker organizations from around the world. For $25 dollars we can bind a year’s worth of a publication and have the name and year of the publication printed on the cover and the spine.
Subscriptions to Quaker and/or social justice publications (ask us what we’re after). When good journals, newsletter and magazines get to the Casa, they get read. Guests, volunteers and visitors are all welcome to peruse the Casa Peace and Service Resource Center and all of the publications we receive. Are you already thinking of something really good that you would like to be available to the Casa community? Let us know! Otherwise, we’ve got a good list of publications we’d love to subscribe to.
Casa Outreach!
Pay for our Friends Journal classified ad for one or two years ($125 or $250 dollars depending on the size of the spot). As of many other organizations, the Journal has been a supporter of the Casa over the years, featuring this organization in several articles and letters. However, their advertising space is in dollars, not pesos, and for us it is a substantial investment. We know that the classified section is well read by many Friends and that our classified ad (which in 2007 we moved from the “Accommodations” to the “Opportunities” section) helps to bring more Quakers to the Casa de los Amigos. If we had the funds, we would also place Casa notices in the Western Friend and Quaker Life and perhaps other Quaker resources. Let us know if you’d like to help get the word out about the Casa among Friends.
Help us print the next issue of “La Voz de la Casa” ($300 dollars). “La Voz” serves three primary functions: 1) it is an educational and consciousness-raising tool for the social issues that the Casa de los Amigos addresses through its programs, 2) it is our beacon in the night to let our friends around the world know that the Casa is still here and working hard, and 3) it also helps to bring new people into the Casa community. Like with the Winter 2009 Economies of Solidarity edition, we are going to try to print 1,000 copies of the next issue—500 in English and 500 in Spanish.
Miscelanea importante
Canned pumpkin, chocolate chips, cranberry sauce, pure maple syrup, Jiffy Cornbread mix, Emergen-C, molasses, good peanut butter. We’d have to go to WalMart to get these here.
Extra METRO tickets, METROBUS cards, and MEXICAN public phonecards. We like to keep a stash of these around at all times to give away to people passing through or living on the streets, people who arrive at the Casa with very little or no funds, and in need of a little help in and around the city.
CASA FUEL—these things keep staff and volunteers working day to day: organic fair trade coffee, chocolate, money, visits from YOU, pens and pencils, desk and office supplies, new paper, ink and toner cartridges, Goddess dressing, tea bags and loose tea, good food, white board pens, bagels and cream cheese.
Extra Scrabble tiles. These are always helpful. The older wooden kind–not the plastic ones from the Deluxe Edition with the rotating board.
To send questions, comments and for more information, please get in touch with us!
Nicholas Wright and Jill Anderson, directors
Casa de los Amigos A.C.
Ignacio Mariscal #132
Colonia Tabacalera
México D.F. 06030
MEXICO
Ph. (+52 55) 5705-0521
Fax (+52 55) 5705-0771
amigos@casadelosamigos.org
directora@casadelosamigos.org
www.casadelosamigos.org