Mano a Mano Newsletter – November 2017

Mano a Mano Blog Roundup: September-November 2017

Below are a few activities featured in our recent newsletter:

Give to the Max Day is Tomorrow, Thursday, November 16th – Your Donation Helps Mano a Mano Reduce Waste in Minnesota and Change Lives in Bolivia. Minnesota’s day of giving is an opportunity to multiply the impact of your donation, with random prizes awarded throughout the day. If you are planning on taking part in Give to the Max Day, please consider supporting Mano a Mano; our project page is here.

Donating Supplies in Capinota, Bolivia, October 28, 2017. These supplies were shipped from Minnesota; your donation on Give to the Max Day will help more people like these get supplies that they are in desperate need of.

Events at the Mano a Mano Office. Mano a Mano has 2 events coming up this month. Tomorrow, November 16th from 5-8pm we are hosting a Bar & Brownie Bake-Off. On Tuesday, November 28th from 5-8pm we are hosting a Soup & Sort volunteer session to sort donated medical supplies. Both events are at Mano a Mano (925 Pierce Butler Route, St. Paul, MN 55104). Please contact Carmen if you’re interested ([email protected]).

3 Mano a Mano Planes, 3 Flights. Mano a Mano’s volunteer warehouse manager Ray Wiedmeyer just got back from a trip to Bolivia with Mano a Mano co-founder Segundo Velasquez. While he was there, he took a lot of pictures and wrote about some of his experiences. On November 1st, 2017, Mano a Mano’s aviation program had a very busy day, which Ray wrote about: “It was a busy day at the Mano a Mano aviation program. All three planes were out doing the work. One was taking a mother, father, and baby home to the Amazon after being in Cochabamba for two months. The baby had a large cyst surgically removed from her neck; an operation that could not be done at a small clinic. Mano a Mano provided the free air transportation back and forth while a church group provided the temporary housing and funding for the medical care.”

One of the Mano a Mano flights preparing for takeoff on November 1, 2017.

Travel to Bolivia with Mano a Mano in March 2018. Mano a Mano invites you to join us on a unique journey to Bolivia to see projects that accomplished our original vision and so much more. Click the link above for a travel packet with more information.

Travelers visiting a Mano a Mano clinic in Omereque during our March 2017 trip.

Building Wells in Omereque, Bolivia. In small, isolated rural Bolivian communities, water is a challenge even in the best of times; the rainy season lasts 2-3 months, and the rest of the year is very dry. The past 2 years have seen severe droughts throughout the country (last year a state of emergency was declared at about this time for the worst drought in 25 years, with more than half of the 339 municipalities declaring a state of emergency; this year is not much better), making water projects a priority. Check out pictures and more information about some of the recent projects Mano a Mano is doing to help improve access to water in rural Bolivia.

The surface wells consist of digging a well near a river basin.

Students Visiting the Center for Ecological Agriculture. The Center for Ecological Agriculture (CEA) provides low-cost, low-tech training for rural Bolivian farmers; as part of its training it also hosts kids from the city and surrounding urban and peri-urban areas to learn more what life is like in rural areas, and about topics like the environment and climate change. Over the past month, Mano a Mano has hosted hundreds of students to tour the CEA, like this group of 70 Students from the Unidad Educativa Santa Luisa de Marillac in October.

Students visiting Mano a Mano’s Center for Ecological Agriculture on October 2, 2017.

Education Minnesota Article – Minnesota Teachers Bring Training to Rural Bolivia. Education Minnesota wrote a nice article about Jackie Smith and Debbie Hadas; Jackie and Debbie have been a huge part of Mano a Mano’s teacher training trips to Bolivia over the past 5 years.

Mano a Mano Teacher Trip, June 2017

Work on the Road to San Lorenzo. The 100 year flooding of 2014 in the tropical area of Beni devastated the minimal road and bridge infrastructure the communities of San Lorenzo and surrounding areas depended on. Even prior to this flooding, the community of San Lorenzo had been requesting assistance from Mano a Mano to build bridges and improve the road infrastructure the community of San Lorenzo relied on to access outside services. Mano a Mano’s heavy equipment has been in the area and responding to fix the damaged roadbed. The floods also washed away various bridges. Instead of building bridges, Mano a Mano personnel are installing cement rings (which were essentially donated from another project) as outlets for the water to escape under the roadbed.

Working on the road to San Lorenzo.