New School in Challacota

With funds raised at Mano a Mano’s 20th Anniversary Celebration in April 2014, Mano a Mano recently completed a school project in Challacota, Bolivia!

The new Challacota school is a smaller project – it has 1 fully-equipped classroom, 2 new showers, renovated bathrooms, and 1 teacher housing module (which has housing for 2 teachers and their families). It was dedicated on February 24, 2015. This school was Mano a Mano’s 53rd education project in Bolivia.

The Challacota school is Mano a Mano’s 53rd education project in Bolivia.

2 Schools Built with Support from 20th Anniversary Celebration

The Challacota school was the second school project that was supported by funds raised at our 20th Anniversary Celebration, joining the much larger 10-classroom school project in Esmeralda that was completed in December.

Esmeralda School project, also built with support from our 20th Anniversary celebration.

Challacota

Challacota is a community of about 1,000 people in the municipality of Salinas de Garci Mendoza, department of Oruro, Bolivia – about a 7-hour drive from the city of Cochabamba.

The new school will be a much more comfortable learning environment for the 25 students in Challacota and the surrounding areas, and a more comfortable working & living environment for the teachers.

The school joins the health clinic that Mano a Mano built in Challacota in 2008.

Challacota Clinic, the 90th Mano a Mano health clinic completed in 2008.

Working Together to Make These Projects Possible

Every project that Mano a Mano does, including this school in Challacota, depends on many people working together (read more about our partnership model here). The Challacota School project was a collaboration with:

Gobierno Autonomo Municipal de Salinas de Garci Mendoza
our counterpart organization Mano a Mano Bolivia
Funding from our 20th Anniversary Celebration in St. Paul, Minnesota
the communities of Challacota

A signficant portion of the funding comes from Bolivian sources; in this case the Gobierno Autonomo Municipal de Salinas de Garci Mendoza provided 54% of funding and the community of Challacota contributed 3.5%. Mano a Mano provided funding raised through the 20th Anniversary Celebration, and our counterpart organization Mano a Mano Bolivia organized everything and built the project from start to finish.

Plaque from our counterpart organization Mano a Mano Bolivia thanking the 20th Anniversary donors that supported this project.

This amount of local funding support is not unusual – with most of our projects, anywhere from 30% and up to 60%+ of the project costs are paid by Bolivian sources. The funding Mano a Mano provides (your donations) is the kickstarter, and our counterpart organizations in Bolivia provide the technical know-how and project oversight from start to finish. But the communities and municipalities are heavily involved.