The children only have one notebook. What we teachers do is have them write everything in pencil and when all twenty or fifty pages of their notebooks are full – that’s ALL they get ALL YEAR – we begin to erase the first page and they write there, then the second page, and so on. We do this so they’ll have somewhere to write, because if didn’t, they wouldn’t have anywhere to do it.

Recently Mano a Mano made a donation of school supplies to his school.

Mano a Mano staff and volunteers donate school supplies to teachers in San Lorenzo

We are happy that we were able to make this small contribution to San Lorenzo! Profesor Justiniano de Ticona talks more about his school and community here: Interview with San Lorenzo Teacher_2_2012; check out more pictures from San Lorenzo here.

This video has currently been entered in the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship 2012 Film Festival. The film festival showcases companies’ projects with nonprofits that are making a difference in the world; the ten companies who receive the most votes will receive special recognition at the 2012 International Corporate Citizenship Conference, March 25-27, in Phoenix, AZ.

Please take a moment to vote for Caterpillar (scroll down the list of companies listed on the right-hand side of the screen, under the red box “Film Festival 2012″) to show thanks for their support of Mano a Mano. Having this video recognized also helps spread the word about Mano a Mano and our projects, so we really hope that you vote for this video. Public voting will take place from February 14 – March 3, 2012.

Vote Here:

Here’s the link to vote again.

Good luck Caterpillar Foundation, and thanks for your support!

Partnership with A Tu Lado

To do this training, Mano a Mano has partnered with A Tu Lado, an organization that has provided formal EMT training and other emergency medical education training in Venezuela. This week A Tu Lado founders Ethan Forsgren and Terence Steinberg traveled to Bolivia to learn more about Mano a Mano and lay the groundwork for more formal EMT training later this year. Mary Ann McNeil, the director of the department of emergency medicine at the University of Minnesota, also traveled to Bolivia as part of the team.

Training course with A Tu Lado on Wednesday, Feb 8

Training Course with SAR and Mano a Mano

Here is a brief description of the training course this week, taken from A Tu Lado’s website (you can read the full update here):

A Tu Lado coordinated an afternoon of training for Mano a Mano volunteers and SAR Bolivia (Search and Rescue), a volunteer EMS service in Cochabamba, who will serve as EMTs in Apoyo Aereo’s evacuation services. It was a brief introduction for these individuals to the full-length training program we will launch in June. The curricula included a presentation on flight physiology, presented by Mary Ann McNeil, who has over 25 years of experience as a flight paramedic; airway adjunct training, including King Airway; backboarding, patient assessment & extrication; intubation of cow trachea and disection of cow hearts and lungs to cover basic anatomy; and intraosseous training conducted on turkey legs.

Mano a Mano is always trying to provide the best possible programs in Bolivia, and we are really excited about this collaboration with A Tu Lado to improve our aviation program! A Tu Lado will be posting updates during their trip on their website if you’re interested in what they are working on.

Photos from the Training Course

Check out more photos from this weeks’ course here.

• Flew volunteer medical professionals from Mano a Mano Bolivia to provide 20 weekend health clinics in rural areas of Bolivia that have no access to healthcare
• Provided 301 emergency air rescues (compared to 266 in 2010)

Transporting a patient with a heart condition in July 2011

A large majority of our emergency flights take place in the Amazon Jungle areas of eastern Bolivia. Many of these communities have very poor roads and nonexistent public transportation, which is especially difficult in times of emergency. It can take days sometimes to get from their communities to a hospital where they can receive care; with an emergency flight they can be at a hospital in a few hours.

A typical situation for a tropical community - a small airstrip cut out of the jungle is their main connection to the rest of the world (this pic is taken from our plane as it is landing)

Weekend health clinics and emergency flights are the two main services of our aviation program, but it is also a crucial asset in supporting Mano a Mano’s other programs.  Staff from Mano a Mano Nuevo Mundo shared this recent story about transporting a motor for our heavy equipment that needed repairs:

We sent the starter motor for the D6M dozer to Cochabamba for repair via TAM (Bolivian airline) several days ago. We hardly knew how to get it there because Tarija is paralyzed by road blockades. Now everything from Tarija is blocked, all roads and air transport from there, so we decided to call for the Apoyo Aereo aircraft. AA flew the repaired starter motor to the landing strip in El Palmar and our personnel rode on horseback to get it. This transport was well coordinated via radio communication. Aviation for some may just be for comfort but for us it is of great utility. Travel by land is impossible with everything blockaded.  We have gained 6 – 7 days of work by investing in 2 hours of flight. We know of others who are still parked in Tarija and cannot return to work.

We are looking to another great year for our aviation program in 2012. We are having a Festival 2012 to support the aviation program in April, after successful Festivals the past 2 years to build a clinic and water reservoir. Members of the Apoyo Aereo board are excited for 2012 as well:

“We believe that 2012 will be a year of much satisfaction, many challenges, goals and progress for this program. We want to work responsibly and with energy in this year 2012.  Thank you for providing us with opportunities to serve Bolivia’s most needy. ”

Santa Rosa residents walking on the path that would become the road

Driving on the newly-completed road

At the dedication ceremony, the mayor of Santa Rosa said that this road is the best road in the entire municipality, even better than the trunk highway that goes to Argentina. During the dedication, Mano a Mano distributed canes and crutches donated from the US to people that needed them and school supplies to the children.

Santa Rosa mayor speaking to community at dedication celebration of the road

This road project was a lot of work. Our staff at Mano a Mano Nuevo Mundo in Bolivia said, “Thanks for the support of Mano a Mano USA, the volunteers in the USA, and the workers in Bolivia.”

Walking on the improved road

This project is hard work; to widen the path we have to cut through the side of the mountain. On this project all funding is coming from Bolivian sources, and Mano a Mano is providing the heavy equipment and skilled operators and engineers.

You can see more pictures here.

Watch the video below to learn more about why these road projects are so essential for these communities:

Our heavy equipment operators clearing a path through the Andes Mountains for the water tubing

Sancayani residents working on their reservoir

You can see more pictures of the project here.

Here are teachers and students from the community of San Pedro talking about the difficulties of teaching and learning in inadequate classrooms (Mano a Mano built new classrooms there in 2010):

Twelve New Classrooms in Apote

One of our biggest education projects was our recent two-story school in Apote. Apote is a rapidly growing community on the outskirts of Cochabamba.  We have worked in Apote for almost a decade; in 2003, Mano a Mano Bolivia built 6 classrooms, along with 6 bathrooms with hot showers and 2 sinks for laundry, and  in 2006 we built a health clinic right across the street.

Visiting students in one of the classrooms built in 2003 during a trip in 2011

US travelers meet with medical staff of Apote clinic during a trip in 2011

With the rapid growth of Apote – there are now 420 school-age children – Mano a Mano partnered with the community and the Municipal Government of Quillacollo to construct 12 more classrooms, in addition to a new set of community bathrooms and furnishings for the classrooms (Mano a Mano Bolivia builds all of the desks, tables, and chairs for the school projects in our warehouse in Cochabamba).

Dedication brochure for Apote

Two Projects in Arampampa Municipality

We also dedicated projects in Santiago and Koaraca, two small communities with about 1,000 residents each in the Department of Potosi.

Santiago and Koaraca

In Santiago we built 2 houses for the teachers working there, and in Koaraca we built and equipped 1 classroom, 1 teacher housing unit, and 1 bathroom.

Classroom in Koaraca

Two teacher housing units in Santiago

Baile!

Winter blahs getting you down? Want to escape to a warm tropical place and mambo the night away? The Mano a Mano Community Outreach Ministry Team invites you to a night of latin dance in the Parish Hall on Saturday, January 14, from 7:00 – 10:30 p.m. Free dance instruction the first hour and a half. No pressure and no partner required!

This event is free, but donations are gratefully accepted. For more information contact Robin Moede at robin@lagerquist.com. For child care contact Christy Randall at christy@unityunitarian.org.

Showing of “Tambien La Lluvia” Movie

The Unity Church Mano a Mano Community Outreach Team invites all Bolivia and world travelers to see the provocative film-within-a-film:

Tambien La Lluvia  (Even the Rain)
Monday, January 30, 7:00pm

Unity Church Unitarian

732 Holly Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55104
(651) 228-1456

The movie’s themes:

1. Spanish imperialism and the water wars, 500 years later.
2. Cast members playing the part of heroes, who fail to see their own cowardice as they flee Cochabamba while the Bolivians risk their lives opposing the multinational corporation for their rights to water.

The story: to save money when making a movie about Columbus and his maltreatment of the indigenous people of the Caribbean, a director chooses to film in Bolivia.  During the filming, native cast members become embroiled in the “Cochabamba water wars,” a series of protests in which Cochabamba residents successfully opposed the privatization of the municipal water supply in 2000.  The Spanish (or Mexican) cast members playing the part of heroic priests who opposed Columbus’ inhumanity, are cowards in the water wars.

A brief discussion will follow the film.

For more information about Tambien La Lluvia, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, see the trailer at http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/even_the_rain/

We hope you can make it to one or both of these great events!

Airplane arriving at our hangar in Cochabamba last week

You can see more pictures here.