The following is Ed Garry's story of how Give Take Share came to be:
January 4, 2009
After leaving the Absolute Absolution in January 2008 and feeling that I had made the correct move by not sailing, I traveled with June Donaldson in South America: Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. During our travels in Bolivia in the city of Sucre, June and I watched a documentary called "El Minero del Diablo" (The devil's miner). ( It is the true story of two young boys aged 12 and 14 who work in the silver mines in Potosi, Bolivia.)
When the film was over, I sat quietly for a while trying to resolve the images that began to flood through my mind. Within a few minutes the images and flashing thoughts coalesced into an idea and then a sequence of events that a group of people could make happen. I think I had a vision, and when I was finished translating it 15 minutes later, I knew what I would be doing in Bolivia for some time to come.
The vision was a simple one: using financing, equipment and volunteers, to offer the children in the mines other options. Give them a space to learn the things that I learned in my high school back in Canada. Get them out of the hazardous working conditions of the mines and into programs that will help them, their families and their communities.
This was the picture, and I know it will be modified by many situations and events. Ultimately I want to offer these children other alternatives, find out what they want, what there parents want and what the community wants.
Inspired by this plan I have set up a registered non-profit NGO in Canada and we have begun the ground work in Bolivia, building contacts in the community and with other organizations already working with children. We have also begun fund-raising efforts and have initiated the process of obtaining charitable organization status in Canada.