A celebration of life will be held for Mano a Mano Co-Founder Joan Velásquez at Unity Church-Unitarian (733 Portland Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104) on Saturday, May 24th, 2025 at 1pm.
It will also be livestreamed on Youtube at the following link: https://bit.ly/jvelasquezmem
Memorials
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Mano a Mano International Partners (925 Pierce Butler Route, St. Paul, MN 55104): https://manoamano.org/donate/ (shared on behalf of Joan’s husband Segundo).
You can read a more detailed memorial for Joan that we shared in December 2024.
Video with Joan
In a recent video we made highlighting “Why Mano a Mano Started, Our Partnership-Based Approach, and the People That Make Our Work Possible” it was bittersweet to include some footage of an interview with Joan about how we started – still very much relevant today:
Obituary
Joan Ellen (Swanson) Velásquez, age 83, died peacefully on December 4th, 2024, in St. Paul, Minnesota, from respiratory complications after suffering a stroke.
Joan was born on October 11, 1941. She grew up on a farm halfway between Hills, Minnesota, and Valley Springs, South Dakota. Joan described her hometown demographics as “homogenous,” contrasting her childhood circumstances with what happened later. In 1959, Joan enrolled in Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she was introduced to an international student population that broadened her perspectives and worldview. Joan majored in sociology and graduated summa cum laude from Macalester College in 1963.
Inspired by President John F. Kennedy and the idea of promoting world peace through global service, Joan joined the Peace Corps. She served in Bolivia for two years (1967-1969). During her two-year Peace Corps stint, Joan started a daycare center in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Cochabamba; this daycare center is still operational today. During her Peace Corps service in Bolivia, Joan got acquainted with the Velásquez family; on February 4, 1978, Joan married Segundo Velásquez. Back in the US, Joan earned her master’s degree from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and later her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Minnesota. Joan worked at Ramsey County from 1970-1994 in mental health, program development, and research, and published more than a dozen articles in professional journals. Joan’s distinguished career in social work was a source of pride.
In 1994 Joan suffered a physical set-back. She’d had polio as a child and spent time in an iron lung. At age 53 Joan was affected by post-polio syndrome, which prevented her from working outside the home in her chosen profession. While Joan was restructuring her life, Segundo’s brother José, a pediatrician in Bolivia, had requested that Segundo bring medical supplies along in his suitcase on his next visit to Bolivia. This request gave Joan and Segundo the idea for a more expansive approach to Bolivia’s health needs. After smaller efforts through family over the years, Joan and Segundo formally founded the nonprofit “Mano a Mano Medical Resources” in 1994 (later changing the name to “Mano a Mano International Partners”).
What started at their kitchen table in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, and operated for years out of Joan and Segundo’s home along with support from volunteers, friends, and family in Minnesota and Bolivia, grew over the course of 30+ years into 5 counterpart organizations that have collected and shipped more than 4 million pounds of excess medical supplies and equipment to Bolivia; built 187+ medical clinics and 70+ schools; carved 1,200 miles of roads through mountainous terrain; drilled deep wells and constructed reservoirs to provide access to water to tens of thousands; developed a medical air rescue service that has airlifted nearly 5,000 people from isolated villages in remote areas to emergency healthcare in the city; and created a Center for Ecological Agriculture to teach farmers about sustainable land and water use. When asked to recount how it all happened, Joan said, “There’s a whole lot you can do while lying in bed.”
Joan is survived by her husband Segundo; by their son Cesar (Segundo’s youngest brother and adopted son); by grandchildren Nicholas and Siana, great grandchildren Amaya and Eleana; siblings – Ivo, José, Margarita, María Blanca, Rubén; and nephews and nieces in Bolivia.
A celebration of life will be held at Unity Church-Unitarian (733 Portland Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104) on May 24th, 2025 at 1pm. It will also be livestreamed on Youtube at the following link: https://bit.ly/jvelasquezmem
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Mano a Mano International Partners (925 Pierce Butler Route, St. Paul, MN 55104): https://manoamano.org/