Good Things Happening at our Counterpart Organizations
Below is a recent email from Mano a Mano co-founder Segundo Velasquez to our staff and board about a few pieces of really good news from our counterpart organizations in Bolivia. (Mano a Mano works through 5 different organizations – 1 office in the US and 4 counterpart organizations in Bolivia – working in their areas of focus.)
The Mano a Mano Apoyo Aereo hangar, at the Jorge Wilstermann airport in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Email From Segundo:
I am pleased to share two important accomplishments with you:
- We received information that two of our counterpart organizations – Mano a Mano Nuevo Mundo and Mano a Mano Apoyo Aereo – have received certification and approval to be registered as an NGO, able to work in all of Bolivia. Mano a Mano Internacional staff member and legal counsel Maria Blanca worked tirelessly for a long time modifying bylaws and articles of incorporation and anything else required by the Bolivian government. Ivo Velasquez and Ben traveled to La Paz recently to inquire about the status and help push to get the application approved……It has happened. Now we will be able to use these documents as samples and a guide to hopefully approve and renew the documents for our other organizations. (It’s important to note that a new law was passed in Bolivia in 2013 requiring all NGOs in Bolivia to renew their registration with the Bolivian government, and it’s a very challenging and lengthy process; of the 2,176 NGOs in Bolivia, only about 250 are fully registered under the new law. This doesn’t mean that our other organizations have lost their legal status or aren’t able to continue to operate – so far no NGO has lost their legal status under the new law – just that they haven’t yet met the full requirements, and they are working to complete their registration right now.)
- I also wanted to let you know that two of our pilots, Ivo Daniel and Tony Murrin, were asked by the Bolivian DGAC (the Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil, the Bolivian equivalent of the US Federal Aviation Administration) to assist in transporting two late model airplanes from the US to Bolivia. This request is very important for the significance and confidence that the DGAC has for the skill of our pilots and our Mano a Mano aviation program. The DGAC will use these late model airplanes to train pilots….and they have requested that Mano a Mano carry out the maintenance on these airplanes. The DGAC has indicated that they want to use or at least base their procedures for piloting and maintenance for the whole country of Bolivia on the procedures that Mano a Mano has developed and uses. As you can imagine, this says much about the work our aviation personnel do and the level of commitment they have to our program.