Highest Rural Poverty Rate

Mano a Mano was started by the Velasquez family because of their personal connection, but Bolivia also has the highest rural poverty rate in the entire world – 94% of rural Bolivians live below the subsistence level. The past two years have also seen extreme droughts in the Andean Highlands; more than 30,000 farmers have lost cattle this year due to lack of water.

The impact of this poverty falls especially hard on Bolivia’s mothers and children. Of 100,000 live births, 650 women will lose their lives (the highest maternal death rate in Latin America). In the rural Cochabamba provinces, the location of most of Mano a Mano’s clinics, 3 of every 10 children die by age one. Most of these deaths result from preventable gastrointestinal infections and diseases for which effective vaccinations are available.

About 65% of the population has no geographic access to medical care. Many others do not receive care because they simply cannot pay for it. Medical supplies and equipment are prohibitively expensive, with non-profit and government operated health programs often lacking the most basic items. The lack of supplies seriously compromises their capacity to provide care for those who have no ability to pay. Mano a Mano’s medical supply distribution and community clinic programs address these serious issues.

The fertile highland valleys in which most Mano a Mano community clinics are located could produce abundant crops of corn, potatoes, and fresh vegetables. Sadly, flooding during the rainy season often destroys crops and undermines the foundations of adobe homes. In turn, lack of means to retain water for use during the dry season results in stunted crop growth and, during especially dry years, near total crop failure, and insufficient water to sustain livestock. Farmers plant few, if any, vegetable crops during the dry season because they must carry water to them from distant water sources.

Improving basic needs – water, education, health, sanitation, roads – can have a huge impact in improving the lives of entire communities at a minimal cost.