Venezuelan boy, 7, learns carpentry and to play guitar

For seven-year-old Benjamin Martin Matute Molina and his Venezuelan family, TT has opened the doors for them to live, progress and learn new things.

In 2016, his father Elkin Matute, from Caracas, decided to leave his country for TT in order to give his three children a better life.

Matute had various jobs, including woodworking, with which he was able a year later to bring his wife Jackelyn Molina and their children to TT – Emily, 16, Ángela, 14, and the then three-year-old baby Benjamin.

Matute, who was not a carpenter in Venezuela, learned all the techniques here, gradually bought his own tools and began to do private work.

After working as a carpenter for other people, Matute decided three years ago to open his own carpentry workshop in the garage of his house on Sandale Avenue, Diego Martin.

In every piece of furniture restored or made new, Matute had an admirer, his little son Benjamin, who ever since he saw the tools in the house incessantly asked how to use them.

It was in those moments of work that Matute decided to explain to Benjamin what the job consisted of, how to use the tools and to give him the opportunities to help him with simple things.

“Since he was little, Benjamin has always been interested in learning everything he sees. We at home try to encourage him and always support him with the supervision that the case warrants,” Matute told Newsday Kids.

Today, Benjamin helps his father with taking measurements on the boards for the cuts, sanding and painting the pieces, among other simple things in the workshop.

“I like to help my father, I feel that when we work together things go very well,” said Benjamin.

He studies at Arbor Private School on Long Circular Road, St James. A group of collaborators from Church of the Assumption, Maraval, made contact with private schools in the area to give migrant children the opportunity to study. After a selection cut, Benjamin and his two sisters were among those who received support.

“For us it is very important that our children can study here. They are advancing in the language and in their training without stagnating. Thanks to these people who opened the doors so that a group of migrant children could study,” said Benjamin's mother.

Benjamin, always interested in learning new things, has also decided to learn a third language, Mandarin.

“I watch Chinese cartoons, series and movies, so I try to learn their language,” he said.

In addition, he wants to follow the example of his sisters Emily and Angela, who have been studying music since they were little.

“They were in music academies in Venezuela and they play various instruments,” said Benjamín, who now plays the guitar and is learning to read music.

"I'm thinking that I like it more for my future, for now I try to learn everything." He is also practises football and loves to eat chocolate while helping his father create armchairs, beds, closets, bathroom shelves, according to the client's needs, and the restoration of old pieces.

The united family works in the carpentry workshop. Matute and Benjamin build furniture, Molina prepares their meals so that they have the energy for work, while Emily and Ángela support in updating the workshop's Instagram page: @ecopalletsdesings.

“We are a team, a great family that I love and support always,” said Benjamin, the musical carpenter.