About us.

Hi thanks for reading!


I am Johan Herrera (aka "Dr Gohan") I'm a former school art teacher, I'm a designer graduated at the National University of Colombia and also an IT technician, as you might guess I'm Colombian.

Let me tell you what my project is about.

Here in Colombia we have lived a long civil war and in every war the main victims are children and teenagers, is no secret that my country has a long history of drug trafficking which makes the war worse because every dollar and euro buying cocaine or other drugs sponsor weapons and fuel the illegal armed groups (guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug lords) add that deadly cocktail government negligence and corruption.

Children and teens have to deal every day with huge monsters:

-Pedophiles. many foraigners come to Colombia with a thing on their minds, to sexually abuse children, many boys and girls are raped, is also known that left wing guerrillas and right wing paramilitaries also engage in such despicable, inhumane and repulsive acts.

-Prostitution. As a result of the sex abuse child and teen prostitution has become an issue.

-Drug Addiction. To manipulate children and teens monsters make them drug addicts, 

-Recruiting. Gangs and illegal armed groups use children and teens for a long list of "jobs" including using them as soldiers, obviously the abuse inside the groups cover a long range of crimes.

-Crime. Many kids see no opportunity to make anything better with their lives than turn to crime.


why is this happening?

I studied the ground with the help of  a social worker at some of the "hottest" barrios/ghettos in Bogotá, most of the kids have parents that care and love them but they face 3 big deals:

1- both parents must work all day, far away.

Because of the economy factor parents must work extremely hard on jobs that demand them to be far away, Bogotá is a big city and it can take easily up to 2-3 hours to be crossed south to north, most ghettos are located far south and the jobs are located far north where the wealthy people live, it means mom and dad barely reach home at 8 or 9 PM and must be up as early as 4 AM so they can't guard their kids. don't take me wrong they try to educate their kids as best as they can in the little time they can get with them, but is not enough because of the second factor.

2- School has 2 schedules.

In order to educate the most population possible the Government made 2 schedules for public schools, morning and afternoon, it means that half of the kids have school at mornings and the others at afternoon it also means that they spend a lot of time in the streets where they are vulnerable.

Some efforts have been made to help those kids stay away of trouble like free Soccer schools, Dance and Theater Schools but in the end many of them turn back to the streets because they know that most of them will never make a life as soccer players, dancers or actors, which leads to the 3rd factor.

3- Poverty and lack of a future.

I think this one tells itself, but imagine yourself in a place where there is no chance to be better because no one cares and no one teach you how to be better, if it is hard for an adult is harder for a kid to see a future when they don't know how to make it.


Project: The Alternative Recycling Laboratory


As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "there is no knowledge that is not power".

Teaching kids how to make cool things out of recycled materials is a way to show them that all that stuff teachers at school try to make them learn like math, physics, chemistry etc. is important and have real life applications, one day i was at "Arabia" a hood of "Ciudad Bolivar" one of the most dangerous places to be in Bogotá i was trying to get some time with the city mayor because he was there and a kid was curious about my headphones made with soda bottles, i showed them to the kid and he stated that he was thinking about stealing because he needed a pair of headphones we spend some time talking about magnetism, electricity and many of the science principles needed to build a pair of headphones, he told me "hey is actually easy to make them and you used recycled materials so if i make a pair for myself then i have to spend no money i will build one for me"  i told him " what if you make as many as you can and sell them to your friends" he was amazed, for the first time on his life he saw a way to make money doing something he liked i finally said good bye and told him "there is no knowledge that is not power, now you have the knowledge to build headphones, it gives you the power to make money out of it"

FYI: the mayor saw my project, he didn't care.

Ideas are powerful and the kid story shows what this project is about, teaching kids how to recycle and make a future for themselves, so i used a blog as a "learning platform" where i post all my ideas and knowledge for them to learn and use, obviously i had to face bigger problems like the fact that many of them have no access to a computer or the necessary tools to make anything so my project grow to 3 branches:


1- Alternative Recycling Laboratory.

A free platform where they can learn arts and crafts such as electronics, computer and information technologies,  applied sciences, industrial and graphic design etc. all of that applied on recycling projects that give a product in the end, In the future i hope to make a nice web page for it and also a multimedia DVD for those who have no internet access.

Right now i must use only free online tools like blogs because i cant afford anything better.


2- Marco Workshops.

Free "in the hood" workshops equipped with the tools they might need for the projects they want to do, there will be a supervisor teaching the kids how to use tools safely and guiding them, Marco workshops will also be the place where kids can learn how to be entrepreneurs.

Right now there is only 1 Marco workshop because i can't afford to pay any more, I'm the supervisor on my free time.

(Marco is my father, i used his name to honor him because he taught me the power of creativity and knowledge)


3- Norma's Pc Farm.

I gather/buy Computer parts and build computers/laptops, then i gave them as donations for the kids, sometimes i donate computers to students (university ones) that cant afford one.

More than 14 computers have been given in the last year, please remember i did that with a teacher salary which here in Colombia is about 300 US Dollars/month.

(Norma is my mother. i used her name to honor her because she taught me to love and help others)


I tried to get government help and failed because they don't care, i tried to get private sector help but they don't care either so i hope to get your help.

Patreon Campaign

Please apologize my bad English, Spanish is my mother Language!!!


this is the facebook page in English where i upload the donations and the project related updates:

click here to go 

*if the link is not working just search on facebook "Alternative Recycling Lab"

click here for the Spanish Version


this version in english of the Alternative recycling laboratory is my way to say thanks, please check the projects and make nice things too, i will translate more projects as soon as i can. you can see the spanish version with more projects and lessons here

click here for the spanish version.


















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