As 2013 comes to a close, we wanted to post a few pictures of what Mano a Mano did over the past year.
This was a big year for us; we surpassed 5 million patient visits in our network of 144 (and counting!) health clinics, completed our 10,000th distribution of donated medical supplies from the US to Bolivia, completed a Demonstration and Training Center to complement our water projects and improve training for rural farmers, moved into a new office/warehouse in St. Paul (that allows us to collect more donated supplies to ship and host more volunteers), provided more emergency air rescues than ever before, and have continued to complete more than 20 infrastructure projects that are requested by Bolivian communities – from clinics and schools to roads and water projects!
2013 in Pictures
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- Volunteers from Medtronic volunteering at the Mano a Mano warehouse in St. Paul. Because of our new space, we can host much larger groups of volunteers, which included more than 420 employees from Medtronic alone in the month of June as part of their Project 6 volunteer project.
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- Aerial view of Mano a Mano’s El Palmar road project.
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- In 2012 Mano a Mano dedicated a large water reservoir project in Sancayani, Bolivia. Sancayani is a rural community in the department of Cochabamba high in the Bolivian Andes – about 14,000 feet above sea level.
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- 1 of 200 wheelchairs that were distributed by Mano a Mano to disabled Bolivians from a shipment of donated supplies from the US to Bolivia in early December 2013.
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- Distribution of donated medical supplies to other nonprofit organizations in Bolivia (free of charge) in April. These supplies were collected and shipped by Mano a Mano in the US to Boliivia – we have distributed 3.5 million pounds of donated supplies since 1994!
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- Teachers from Minnesota speaking with teachers and parents from Arani, Bolivia as part of our pilot teacher exchange program this summer. We will be doing this program again in 2014.
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- Panoramic view of the Demonstration and Training Center (CEA, by its acronym in Spanish) on the outskirts of Cochabamba. The center will provide training to rural Bolivian farmers to maximize use of their water resources and improve agriculture in their communities.
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- Flying through the Andes mountains in the Mano a Mano plane. The aviation program provides emergency air rescues, flies volunteer doctors and nurses to remote locations for weekend health clinics, and transports Mano a Mano staff to remote project sites (which can save days of travel time).
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- Providing an emergency flight in 2013.
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- Waiting to be seen in a Mano a Mano clinic. One of the primary focus areas of our clinics is maternal/child care. Through the first nine months of 2013, Mano a Mano clinics have delivered 1,930 babies. Frequent prenatal exams (assisted by the Bolivian government-funded Juana Azurduy program which provides stipends for expecting mothers to attend prenatal exams and give birth in a hospital) and having births attended by trained healthcare personnel, in addition to ongoing exams after birth and the ability to quickly communicate with larger hospitals in case of emergencies, can dramatically decrease early infant mortality. For births attended by Mano a Mano doctors or nurses the infant mortality rate is 92.5% lower (when compared to the available infant mortality data for rural Bolivia). Photo credit: Doug Rea
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- Dedication of the clinic expansion in San Jacinto in November 2013. We previously built a health clinic in October 2005, which was a smaller project that had one nurse on staff. After a number of years in operation, the community approached our counterpat organization Mano a Mano Bolivia asking for an expansion of the project to be able to add space for a doctor and dentist.
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- Our US staff and volunteers loading 2 containers from our new office/warehouse space in St. Paul in August. It is a LOT EASIER to load containers in our new space; no more having to transport everything a few hundred yards from storage to the loading docks like in our old space! And we are indoors and have heating in our warehouse for the first time!
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- People in El Palmar using the completed road for the first time in November! This portion of the road connects connects a path on the side of the El Palmar town to the road to Tarija. The completed road project – 60 kilometers – will be finished in 2014.
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- St. Paul volunteer Joey Temali was recognized as a ‘Local Hero’ at Mano a Mano’s Festival Bolivia 2013 in April for his commitment to raise enough funding to build a school in Bolivia with Mano a Mano. Photo credit: Jose Martinez
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- Waiting to be seen in a Mano a Mano clinic. Through the first nine months of 2013, Mano a Mano clinics have had 690,691 patient visits. Photo credit: Doug Rea
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- Every project we do is at the request of and with support by the community. Here we are meeting with community members in El Palmar about their road project, one of many meetings that take place between Mano a Mano and the community for every project.
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- Our new office/warehouse space in St. Paul that we moved into (and out of our con-founders’ home in Mendota Heights, which was our ‘office’ for our first 18 years) in January 2013!
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- Kids in Curzani were given a packet of school supplies by Mano a Mano as part of the dedication celebration for a road built in Curzani.
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- Mano a Mano’s heavy equipment at work in Pucara improving downstream water access for communities’ plots of land. This is what having heavy equipment makes possible – we were able to provide access to irrigation water in this project in 5 HOURS; the entire community with their hand tools could not have done this in 20 YEARS.
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- Volunteers from Medical Educators For Latin America – MELA with Mano a Mano Bolivia staff, where they completed their 6th International Acute Care Conference in March 2013 which provided continuing health education to Bolivian medical professionals from throughout the country. These conferences are a complement to the 10-12 continuing education workshops our staff do for medical staff that work in Mano a Mano clinics throughout the year.
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- Travelers from Rotary International visiting the Jusku Molle water reservoir project in April, which Mano a Mano completed with their support.
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- A doctor in a Mano a Mano clinic with a patient. Mano a Mano’s network of clinic surpassed 5 million patient visits since the program began in 1999. Photo credit: Doug Rea
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- Mano a Mano Bolivia staff during a training session for volunteer health promoters in Jironkota (where we completed a cliniic in late 2012). In every clinic we do, about 10 community residents are trained as volunteer health promoters.
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- Building a road in El Palmar, Bolivia – a roughly 60-kilometer road that has been one of our most challenging projects (a flash flood wiped out some of the completed road and the terrain and weather here is especially difficult for our staff). The road will be finished in 2014.
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- Community celebrating the completion of our clinic in Chivirancho.
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- Community residents volunteering on the site of the Chivirancho clinic which was completed in 2013 with our counterpart organization Mano a Mano Bolivia.
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- Residents of Esmeralda checking out their new clinic that was completed this year.
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- Working in rural Bolivia is never easy – here staff from Mano a Mano Nuevo Mundo work on digging out our truck that got stuck in El Palmar, where we are working on a 60-kilometer road.
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- School kids in Arani, Bolivia, where we piloted a teacher exchange program with teachers from Minnesota this summer.
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- Community celebrating the dedication of a new road project built with our counterpart organization Mano a Mano Nuevo Mundo in September.
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- Schoolkids visiting our Demonstration and Training Center (CEA) on the outskirts of Cochabamba, and learning about agriculture with Mano a Mano’s agronomist Camila in September 2013.
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- Sunset in Arani, Bolivia.
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- Our new office/warehouse space has allowed us to host much larger groups of volunteers, like this group from St. Catherine University as part of Citizen Katie Day in October.
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- Working in rural Bolivia is never easy – here staff from Mano a Mano Nuevo Mundo are unloading materials after crossing the river in the truck; there are no bridges!
THANKS!
We thank everyone that has supported us, and we are excited for what next year- when Mano a Mano celebrates 20 years in operation – will bring!
View Photos on Social Media
You can check out these photos of 2013 on the following sites if you prefer that layout: