We are extremely saddened to share the news that Mano a Mano Co-Founder Joan Velásquez passed away on December 4th, 2024, after suffering a stroke earlier in the week. This is a huge loss for the many, many people that Joan has impacted over a lifetime – a truly remarkable person.

Thanks to everyone for your condolences, kind words, and best wishes. They are sincerely appreciated in this difficult time. You are welcome to share condolences, stories, and memories of Joan by commenting on this page, sending cards to the Mano a Mano office (925 Pierce Butler Route, St. Paul, MN 55104), or emailing [email protected].

Celebration of Life (Spring 2025) & Memorial Information

A celebration of life will be held at a later date (Spring 2025) in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a second event in Bolivia around that time.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Mano a Mano International Partners “in memory of Joan Velasquez” online (https://manoamano.org/donate/) or mailed to the Mano a Mano address (925 Pierce Butler Route, St. Paul, MN 55104).

(Shared on behalf of Joan’s husband and Mano a Mano Co-Founder Segundo Velásquez.)

From Gaining Ground: Joan’s Story

Read an excerpt about Joan’s story from the intro to Mano a Mano’s Book “Gaining Ground” completed in 2014 (lightly edited from the book version):

“At age two Joan had contracted polio, which led to full-body paralysis and several weeks in an iron lung. Through the generosity of her neighbors in the tiny farming community of Valley Springs, South Dakota, she spent the year that included her third birthday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Joan’s social conscience was stoked in the early years not only by her ongoing health struggles, but also by a landowner’s callous treatment of her tenant farmer parents.

Joan has experienced poverty, physical challenges, and unfairness; and she has spent her life tackling each. After graduating from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in 1965 with a degree in social work, Joan visited three doctors before one would sign off on her joining the Peace Corps. Despite her respiratory problems, Joan was assigned to the high altitudes of Bolivia. In fact, nothing about the posting was easy. Joan found her assigned project cancelled due to revolution in the region. Undaunted, she stayed and established a day-care center in a poor barrio on the outskirts of Cochabamba. (It operates to this day.) After returning to the U.S., Joan earned her doctorate in social work from the University of Minnesota and enjoyed a successful 25-year career in administration and research with Ramsey County. However, in 1994 her health challenges proved to be too much to manage. Suffering from post-polio syndrome, Joan was forced to take a medical leave. Flat on her back and on oxygen most of the time, Joan used her many months of bed rest to lay the groundwork for Mano a Mano. Operating under the theory that although her body wasn’t cooperating, there was nothing wrong with her mind, she decided to use this time to help Segundo fulfill his passion to give back to Bolivia. Mano a Mano likely would not exist if Joan’s health had allowed her to continue her professional career. Ironically, since those early months of forced bed rest, Joan and Segundo have worked full-time, on a pro bono basis, to Mano a Mano and its mission. At 4’11” tall, Joan stands as a giant.

In 2008, Joan was awarded the National Peace Corps Association’s prestigious Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service. Upon accepting the award, she explained why she and Segundo have devoted their lives to helping others rise from poverty:

‘The spirit of international volunteerism moved Segundo and me to create Mano a Mano, founding it on the premise that a group of determined volunteers could reach across national boundaries to make a real difference in the lives of others. From its very humble beginnings—collecting a few surgical instruments for a hospital in Cochabamba, Bolivia—Mano a Mano has grown far beyond our capacity to imagine. Seven hundred thousand rural Bolivians who subsist on less than one dollar per day now have access to health care for the first time in their lives because Mano a Mano has clinics in their villages. Thousands have a reliable water supply for their crops and livestock, and a road on which to transport them to market because Mano a Mano has built roads and reservoirs with them… We hope that our story inspires others to join us on this journey; just as we have been inspired by those who believed that a few committed people can change the world.’”

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In Memory of Mano a Mano Co-Founder Joan Velásquez

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Learn More About Joan’s Impact Over a Lifetime

• “Highlighting Notable Women in Mac Herstory” including Mano a Mano Co-Founder Joan Velásquez (March 2024)
• Joan Velasquez Wins Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service (2008)
• Joan and Segundo Velasquez on 2022 Pollen 50 Over 50 List (2022)
• Gaining Ground Book (the Mano a Mano Story) Won First Place at MIPA Book Awards (2015)
• Purchase the Mano a Mano Book “Gaining Ground” written by Joan Velásquez

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For Joan Velásquez ’63, Macalester College opened her eyes to the world. Velásquez grew up on a farm in the homogeneous Protestant town of Hills, Minnesota, which lacked racial diversity and an assortment of worldviews. 

While it was initially intimidating to move from a small town to the Twin Cities, Mac’s international student population allowed Velásquez to meet people she would never have met had she stayed in her hometown. The more she began to know students from other countries, the more her perspectives broadened and her interests shifted. 

Velásquez was a sociology major. She knew she wanted to be a social worker when she arrived at Mac, but she also highlighted the importance of building a solid foundation in college that gives students the flexibility to go down many different paths in the future. 

“People see a sociology degree and say, what is that worth?” she said. “But there are so many things you can do … it doesn’t close off possibilities when you start as a generalist.” 

Velásquez was also passionate about student activism and was involved in the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).

Velásquez graduated around the height of the Vietnam War. In 1967, inspired by John F. Kennedy’s mission, she decided to join the newly formed Peace Corps and was stationed in Bolivia for two years.

“Joining the Peace Corps [was] doing something very different from military service, something positive,” Velásquez said. “And that was a very exciting kind of alternative. You can go some other place in the world and hopefully make a positive difference.”

Upon returning from Bolivia, Velásquez earned both her master’s and doctorate degrees, working as a clinical social worker. She received a grant for a social work program that aimed to train social workers to work effectively with communities of color. Along with another Mac graduate, Velásquez ran various Latino learning centers and taught students. She was the only social worker in the program who spoke Spanish, staying connected with the Latino community even after returning home.

Eventually, she was hired by Ramsey County as a research director. She did program evaluations for social service mental health programs and other types of research.

In 1994, all her hard work culminated in her biggest project yet, the result of an unexpected setback. When Velásquez was just two years old, she contracted polio and was placed in an iron lung. With frequent hospitalizations, she was able to live a relatively normal life. But late effects reappeared, and Velásquez became too sick to work outside the home.

“There’s a whole lot you can do while lying in bed,” she told me. “In this day and age, when you have a cellphone and computer, it doesn’t matter where you are.”

She and her husband Segundo co-founded the Mano a Mano International organization to address critical health issues in rural Bolivia. By collecting medical surplus in Minnesota and shipping it to Bolivia for distribution, Mano a Mano has since shipped over four million pounds of medical, school and construction supplies to Bolivia, with 700,000 Bolivians now having access to healthcare for the first time.

Macalester College helped Velásquez discover the values that most mattered to her. For us, as current college students, she gives some advice.

“I can’t overemphasize [this]: listen, observe, pay attention, come in trying to clear your mind of the sense that you already know something,” Velásquez said. “Try to understand as much as possible about different views of the world.” “What are your core values as a person? Passions? What interests and excites you?” she said. “Trust that … Something will emerge.”

• Highlighting notable women in Mac herstory (from March 2024)

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Mano a Mano Bolivia

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Mano a Mano Nuevo Mundo

Mano a Mano Aviation

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Mano a Mano Internacional