In June 2014, seven teachers from Minnesota traveled to Bolivia as part of a teacher training & education project in Arani, Bolivia. This was the second year of this trip; in June 2013 nine teachers from Minnesota participated in the pilot project.
Teacher Training Trip to Bolivia
Mano a Mano Internacional staffmember Paola wrote a summary of the trip, which you can read below:
Teacher Training Trip_June 2014 (PDF)
Excerpts from Teacher Training Trip Report
Arriving in Arani.
After the opening ceremony, we visited the various educational units with the objective of briefly assessing: the educational content, the grades that are being taught, the number of students in each classroom, characteristics of the classrooms, as well as other infrastructure information.
Visiting classrooms in Arani.
Participation certificates where given to each teacher that attended the workshop.
Training session with Arani teachers and Mano a Mano.
Mano a Mano also recognized each visitor from the United States, with the traditional “guirnalda” long necklace made out of flowers, and an oversize bread called “mama k´oncachi” (in the native Quechua language it means “so you will not miss your mother”), exchanged of presents were made and Mano a Mano donated office supplies to every school that participated in this workshop.
Minnesota teachers being recognized with the guirnalda.
Thanks Teachers!
A huge thanks to the community of Arani, Mano a Mano staff and volunteers, and the Minnesota teachers that worked very hard to make this training & education trip possible! We are looking forward to continuing with this project in the years to come!