Each of Mano a Mano’s five counterpart organizations started as a pilot project, “living” in the home of that organization’s founders until it was firmly established. When our new office building on the outskirts of Cochabamba is finished, each organization will have accomplished a major milestone: each will have its own permanent space.

In spite of COVID-related interruptions, this building project is moving forward. Roof construction begins this week. The carpentry crew will use ropes to hoist 5-foot metal bars up the front of the building and onto the flat surface of the top floor, then weld those bars into roof beams. Once beams are in place, they will install corrugated metal, the finishing surface of the roof.

Mano a Mano’s shared space with our Center for Ecological Agriculture, warehouse for sorting supplies sent from Minnesota, workshops for repairing heavy equipment and constructing furniture and school/clinic equipment, and this new office building are located in El Abra, Cochabamba.

Mano a Mano Internacional in Bolivia will use half of the first floor space, having easy access to the nearby warehouse where the medical cargo shipped from St. Paul is received, sorted, and distributed.

3 of Mano a Mano’s counterpart organizations have programs based out of this space in El Abra on the outskirts of Cochabamba. Mano a Mano Bolivia also has their main office/warehouse about a mile away, and Mano a Mano Aviation has their hangar space at Jorge Wilstermann, the primary airport of Cochabamba.

The top floor will be used for meetings, gatherings for visitors, training courses, and workshops. Having permanent office space for the Mano a Mano organizations in Bolivia moves us another step forward in the long-term sustainability of the organization as a whole.

Mano a Mano’s First “Office” – Joan and Segundo’s House in Mendota Heights, Minnesota

9 years ago this week, we were busy moving into our new office/warehouse space in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul, and moving out of the home of our Co-Founders Joan and Segundo Velasquez in Mendota Heights, which was our headquarters for our first 19 years of operation! We went back with Segundo to visit our old office as part of a video project in partnership with TPT – Twin Cities PBS in 2019; the video includes footage from when Joan and Segundo were featured as part of the KARE 11 “Eleven Who Care” award 20 years ago (Kare 11 footage is at the 2-minute mark):

Pictures From Our First Office in Mendota Heights – the Early Years

: Mano a Mano’s ‘warehouse’ in Joan and Segundo’s backyard in the early years!

Mano a Mano’s Combined Office/Warehouse Space in St. Paul, Minnesota

Moving out of Joan and Segundo’s house, and into our own space in 2013, has been transformational for Mano a Mano as an organization. Mano a Mano has become a space for hundreds of Minnesotans to volunteer and learn about community-based international development taking place in their backyard. In our new space, we are now able to host larger groups of volunteers, and manage a larger amount of donated supplies. In addition to shipping supplies to Mano a Mano’s programs in Bolivia, we have been able to donate supplies to organizations and people in need in the Twin Cities, as well as ship supplies to other countries. (We have had to limit the number of people in the building during COVID, but we have continued to distribute the same number of supplies to Bolivia over the past few years when compared to the previous years.)

: Mano a Mano volunteers put together layette sets for newborn babies in Bolivia.

: Students from Metro State and St. Kate’s help load containers with medical supplies and equipment for Bolivia.

: All 3 containers filled and ready to start on their way to Bolivia – March/April 2021.

: 2 containers at Mano a Mano’s St. Paul warehouse – ready to load with supplies for Bolivia, September 2021.

: Mano a Mano’s office/warehouse in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Building in Bolivia – A Shared Space at 291 Junin esq. Ecuador in Downtown Cochabamba

The building at 291 Junin esq Ecuador has hosted Mano a Mano visitors and served as the offices for Mano a Mano Internacional and Mano a Mano Nuevo Mundo for years.

If you have been to Bolivia with Mano a Mano at any point in our history, you will have undoubtedly spent time at the building at 291 Junin esq. Ecuador in the center of Cochabamba. This Velasquez family apartment building has hosted volunteers and served as offices for a number of our counterpart organizations for more than 30 years.

: Red Cross Potosi loading their ambulance with supplies from Mano a Mano in front of the 291 Junin building, March 28, 2020.

Mano a Mano Bolivia’s Office/Warehouse

Mano a Mano Bolivia’s office/warehouse is located at Calle Cardenal Terrazas N° S 395, Zona Quintanilla in Cochabamba.

Our first counterpart organization formed in Bolivia, Mano a Mano Bolivia, focuses on health and education projects, including building health clinics and schools, and was founded in 1999. They have been in their office/warehouse building for 2 decades.

: Section of the machine shop at Mano a Mano Bolivia (they make all of the windows and doors for Mano a Mano clinics and schools here as well).

: A number of the South Dakota volunteers, including Diane, traveled to Bolivia with Mano a Mano in 2006; here they are sorting medical supplies sent from Minnesota at our counterpart organization Mano a Mano Bolivia’s warehouse.

: Mano a Mano Bolivia donating a wheelchair in Cochabamba.

: Participants of the Advanced Trauma workshop, at Mano a Mano Bolivia.

: A trauma workshop hosted by volunteer medical professionals from the Twin Cities-based organization Medical Educators for Latin America (MELA). MELA travels to Bolivia once or twice a year to do workshops with Mano a Mano Bolivia.

: MELA volunteers, Mano a Mano Bolivia staff, and attendees for the pilot trauma course in December 2013.

Mano a Mano Aviation Hangar at Jorge Wilstermann Airport

Mano a Mano’s aviation program is based at the Jorge Wilstermann airport in Cochabamba.

Mano a Mano Apoyo Aereo focuses on our aviation program, primarily emergency air rescues and transport, and was founded in 2006. We have been in this hangar since our start.

: Loading Mano a Mano’s Cessna Caravan at our hangar at the Jorge Wilstermann Cochabamba Airport

: Mano a Mano Aviation staff at the Mano a Mano hangar at Jorge Wilstermann airport in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

: The Mano a Mano Apoyo Aereo hangar, at the Jorge Wilstermann airport in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

: An emergency flight in June 2021 outside of our hangar at the Cochabamba airport.

: One of Mano a Mano’s flights in 2020, in front of our hangar at the Cochabamba airport.

: SAR picking up Miguel at the Mano a Mano hangar in Cochabamba, for transport to the hospital.

: Loading supplies at Mano a Mano’s hangar in Cochabamba to distribute in Beni – June 2020

: Mano a Mano’s aviation program provides flights on a near-daily basis. This is our Cessna Caravan in front of the Mano a Mano hangar at the Cochabamba airport.

Celebrating the Initiation of the “Punata Regional Complex”

Punata, Bolivia.

Mano a Mano celebrated the initiation of the “Punata Regional Complex” – a comprehensive project in the Cochabamba Valley’s Punata region over the next three years that includes a 3rd expansion of the Laguna Sulti agricultural water reservoir (complete); a new public school (50% complete); a deep well for potable water (complete); a three-mile road; infrastructure needed for moving our aviation program from the Cochabamba airport; and preparation for a rural Center for Ecological Agriculture (CEA).

: The roadbed for Mano a Mano’s runway in Laguna Sulti.

: Filling dump trucks at Mano a Mano’s Laguna Sulti water reservoir expansion.

: Working on the 2-story school project in Chirusi.

: Banner honoring Epifanio Velasquez at Laguna Sulti. This is part of the Punata Regional Complex project.

: Mano a Mano’s expansion of the Laguna Sulti water reservoir is now complete! The rain recently arrived and filled the reservoir. One rain and the reservoir is about to overflow by the large overflow opening.

: Mano a Mano’s well-drilling equipment in Chirusi, Bolivia.

Heavy Equipment, Vehicles, and Planes

Mano a Mano is made up of 5 counterpart organizations focusing in different areas of community development – health, education, economic development, food security and nutrition, and more – with the same mission of “Partnering together – Hand in Hand – to transform the health and well-being of Bolivian communities in need.” Much of this work is made possible by having the capacity needed as an organization to be able to adequately partner with and provide support to Bolivian communities. This means having professional staff, heavy equipment and machinery, and sites and warehouses. With these components available, communities and their municipal governments can partner with Mano a Mano on community projects with realistic and achievable budgets, which is further leveraged with funds raised in the US that kickstart every project. (Read more about our partnership model here.)

Our aviation program is another example. Since our Cessna Caravan arrived in Bolivia 3+ years ago, this plane has increased the capacity of Mano a Mano’s Aviation program to transport more people & more cargo, more efficiently. Having our own aviation program, we can subsidize the costs of providing emergency flights and weekend health clinics for people in need, for free, by charging for private flights for people and cargo.

3 of Mano a Mano’s 4 counterparts are based on the same plot of land in El Abra, Cochabamba: Mano a Mano Internacional’s warehouse for distributing supplies and equipment sent from Minnesota (top left); Mano a Mano Internacional’s Center for Ecological Agriculture (top right); Mano a Mano Nuevo Mundo’s warehouse for heavy equipment (bottom left); Mano a Mano Bolivia’s warehouse for constructing furniture and equipment and storing its heavy equipment (bottom right; Mano a Mano Bolivia also has an office and training space at a different location about a mile away). Mano a Mano Aviation has their hangar at the Cochabama airport.

Long-Term Sustainability

In order for Mano a Mano to work with Bolivian communities on the projects they request, we need to have the capacity to do so. Everything we do to improve the sustainability of Mano a Mano as an organization makes it possible to do more with the Bolivian communities that we partner with. We have come a long ways as an organization since 1994, and we look forward to the future!

Learn More About Mano a Mano

Moving Another Step Forward in Mano a Mano’s Long-Term Sustainability