About Labour Day - Written by a Volunteer in Communications print story

May 17, 2011

Voluntario Global, Argentina

On Sunday it’s the 1st of May, which means it’s Labour Day – ”el Dia del Trabajo”. So why not go and talk to some of the working people of Buenos Aires? I went to ’La Lavandaria’ at calle Chile 1661 to interview the students who work there and to get a feeling of the working environment at this particular Laundromat.

I met up with Ariel, 26 years old, who is one of the coordinators of the Laundromat, and asked him about the history of la Lavandaria; when it started, why it started, and what’s the whole purpose of it.
He told me that he used to work at a hotel with one of his friends making lunch. There they came up with the idea of making a Laundromat because, as he told me, one of the main problems for the hotels here is to find a place to clean the sheets and the clothes. So they presented the idea to IPF and got a grant to start the project in corporation with Voluntario Global.

This was three years ago. Today the corporation has grown. They started out being three people and cleaning for two hotels, now they are 6 people cleaning the sheets for 8 hotels. And instead of delivering the sheets by foot they now have bikes donated by Los Pibes in La Boca and can afford buying scooters.
For Ariel this is a project to help the young students from the ‘villas’ of Buenos Aires to get a good first-job experience while they are studying or planning to do so. He hopes that in time they will get more money to buy more washing machines, get more clients and in that way be able to offer more jobs.
I also talked to Carolina, 24 years old, who works there three times a week. For her this is a perfect job because the hours fit perfectly with her studies as a dentist. She has been working at the Laundromat since February washing the sheets on 6 hours shifts, and she likes the job even though it doesn’t pay much. She told me that she learns a lot from the other guys about organising the business and meetings, and that the money she gets for working at the Laundromat helps her pay for photocopies to her studies among other things.

If you have been at the volunteer house you might have run in to Junior. He is the one bringing out the sheets to the hotels on his bike or scooter. He is 20 years old and has been working at the Laundromat for a year now. For him the job is good in every way; the people, the working hours etc. He has finished secondary school and would like to start studying Hotel Management next year so he can earn money to get his own place instead of living with his mother and three siblings. But for now he likes working at the Laundromat.
I was here some weeks ago when they renovated the place and it really looks good. Now there is a brand new kitchen and bathroom, and they are going to put up a table so that they can study while the sheets are getting washed. The place is really going good and the atmosphere is really nice. Everybody seems happy and seems to enjoy their job.

I asked Ariel at the end what this job means to him and if he will continue working here. He said that he is half way through his studies in dentistry and will continue working here as long as it doesn’t get in the way of his studies, because for him this is not just a job, its something he helped create. He told me that he never thought it possible for him to be part of making such a project, being from a shantytown and all, and even more keep it running and continuously expanding it little by little. Also because people didn’t give them credit for it at the beginning and told them that the project would close after a month. But if you look at the Laundromat now I guess he and his friends showed them wrong!

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