David Bargueño

Foreign Service Officer David Bargueño led an innovative partnership with the largest cooperative of recyclable trash pickers (“catadores”) in Latin America, representing more than 2,500 low-income families in Brasília. He mobilized a yearlong fundraising and volunteer campaign across the Embassy, American School, and the trash pickers' community, culminating with an upgrade of local recycling facilities on international volunteer day. His team procured supplies for the catadores' professional education including sewing machines, hairdresser seats, laptops, bookshelves, books, and furniture. The director of the cooperative noted that the United States was the first and only embassy to ever volunteer at the recycling center. At the end of the event, the multipurpose room was renamed “Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall” to honor the U.S. Embassy's support.