1. What is the actual local situation you are addressing?

On the Bolivian Altiplano, at more than 3,400 metres of altitude, the Indian populations attempt to survive in spite of highly reduced means and a hostile environment: extreme marginality, abandonment by the authorities, drought, high pollution, limited and poor quality of schooling.

Those most affected are children; not only are they suffering from under nourishment, but they also have to help their parents in very harsh working conditions. The consequences are severe; with no education and no training, they will never be able to escape the misfortunes of poverty and will die at the age of 50, as is the fate of their illiterate parents.

Within the framework of a large prevention campaign for the eradication of child labour, Voix Libres' social teams have made an alarming diagnosis: 75% of the mine’s workers come from a rural communities like Vitichi.

The Vitichi municipality is also concerned about this calamity. Within the past years, poverty has risen significantly due to a decrease in agricultural production. In order to survive, populations have migrated to the mines or the shantytowns of larger cities (Potosí, La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz) where they find themselves completely lacking any training and education in unfamiliar surroundings. This situation has terrible repercussions for children, who are forced to abandon their studies to go work in mines or on the street in severe conditions: violence, sexual abuse, dramatically low salaries, extremely dangerous workplaces.

2. What has led you (or the organisation) to start the project?

Experience has taught us that proper nutrition in combination with education and autonomous training in solidarity and leadership is the most durable and constructive way forward to create opportunities for both the children and their families.

Right now, many children avoid going to school because of the following reasons:

• A long and dangerous journey (2 to 3 hours of walking daily) from their village to the school.
• Dropping out of school during the year (70% of children do not attend school)
• Sleeping on the ground (cold rocks) when they cannot return home.

3. What do you want to achieve?

In 2009 we built a boarding school to serve the children who live far away from school (between 5 and 25 Km daily walking distance) and also for the children of the village who are in unstable situations. In addition to increasing school attendance, this new school will guarantee good nutrition for the children (meals are provided in the school).

To ensure continuation, we need to purchase the necessary school material for the children of Vitichi and the surrounding villages.

• 3 pens (black, red and blue)
• 2 pencils (grey and red)
• 1 eraser
• 1 pencil sharpener
• 1 package of 12 colored pencils
• 1 assortment of felt-tip pens
• 4 notebooks
• 1 folder
• 200 sheets of paper
• 1 binder
• 1 ruler
• 1 kit of basic geometry instruments
• 1 nice backpack

Our multi-disciplinary team travels to the most isolated communities each year to offer children these materials which encourages and enables them to attend school.

General Objectives:

1. Prevention and eradication of child labor in the countryside, the mines, the streets, the garbage dumps and the shantytowns of Bolivia
2. Reduce rural migration
3. Education and training for children from the countryside

Specific objectives:

• To provide accessible schooling (one school in a perimeter of 30 miles) so that the children of the communities nearby Vitichi can attend school.
• Provide suitable educational conditions for the children of Vitichi
• Increase school attendance by avoiding long and dangerous journeys
• Energize the community through young graduated students (leadership training)

Gender Dimension:

In spite of the importance of their economic role, especially in agricultural production, and in spite of the large proportion of women at the head of the family (many fathers are deceased or have abandoned their families), women are still widely discriminated against with regard to land ownership for both cultural and legal reasons. Their fundamentals rights are ignored.

This project maintains logic of equality between girls and boys, especially concerning access to education for all. The situation for girls remains very difficult even today. In these villages, the objective is to assure their future by giving them the opportunity to attend school.

4. How are you going to achieve it?

Voix Libres actively collaborates with 31 municipalities from the department of Potosí, which are their local partners.The local authorities and the beneficiary population are given a sense of responsibility through their active role in the project, guaranteeing the project’s stability and endurance.

At the same time, Voix Libres develops basic education programs such as literacy for groups of mothers, support programs for children having difficulties in school, and scholarships for orphans and impoverished children so that they can become leaders of their own projects. Voix Libres provides school supplies and academic equipment to more than 190 school of Potosí’s department.

Municipality Partnership

Since the creation of law 1551 of popular participation, each municipality is given a budget to meet community needs. Thus they are responsible for carrying out an APO (Annual Plan of Operation) which has to be approved by the municipal council and revised by a watch committee and by community leaders.

However, financial means are lacking and the municipalities have to look for additional support. To meet their needs, Voix Libres established a convention system. We intervened in the construction of infrastructures and the boarding school of Vitichi was built in 2009 under the following conditions:

• 50% of the construction’s budget is financed by the municipality itself
• The technical staff of the municipality has to make the plans and budgets for the work
• The technical team of Voix Libres advises and revises the plans as well as the budgets
• The construction is carried out by a community team, trained by a mason chosen by the community who is supervised by our civil engineers

5. What is your long term vision for the project?

Principal advantages:

• Lasting/long-term education for the children
• Secure and comprehensive place for the children
• Training in a participative living (community meals, daily task organization, etc.)
• Nutritional autonomy for the school

Autonomy guarantee and durability of the project:

• Children’s motivation and support of the parents
• Children’s practice of nutritional autonomy
• Infrastructures managed by a commitee of parents and professors
• Construction supervised by Vitichi’s municipality
• Accounting monitored by Voix Libres and the municipality

6. How is your idea/project going to benefit the community or the situation?

Benefits for the community members:

• Allowing for primary and secondary education for girls and boys who have no other possibility to study due to extreme poverty.
• The nutritional autonomy of the project which will also guarantee the project’s durability
• Reduction of rural migration
• Improvement of hygienic and security conditions
• Set up a public library in the village
• Leadership and awareness-raising workshops for girls and boys (gender dimension)

7. Which results do you expect?

1. Primary and secondary education for girls and boys who have no other possibility to study due to extreme poverty.
2. The nutritional autonomy of the project to guarantee the project’s durability
3. Reduction of rural migration
4. Improvement of hygienic and security conditions
5. Set up a public library in the village

8. How can you measure those results (quantifying)?

The indicators we use for measurement of effectiveness:

1. The number of resident children and their origin
2. Evaluation of the total population of the municipality to estimate rural migration
3. Number of lessons administered (academic and extra-curricular)
4. Number of professors (proportional to the number of students)
5. Children’s health (weight, size, concentration capacity, etc.)
6. Sensitization of the adults: number of training workshop, family planning etc...

9. Communication, visits and feedback

Frequency of reports

We will report every 3 months with photos of progress and an explanatory text.

Communication

The person in charge of communications on this project is Ophélie Schnoebelen.

Visits

We allow participants to visit our project location, but it is important for us to be in close contact with participants so that we can collaborate together.

We would prefer participants to come once a year. Each visit can accommodate 5 participants, at their own expense because we cannot financially support them, seeing as we are a humanitarian organization. The best time is between March / April or September / October.

10. What do you expect from the Uniting People community?

We are open to many suggestions because this is how we function. We would be very grateful for your support for the sake of all the children. On a larger scale and in the long term, your support will help revive the local economy, in addition to reviving Bolivia’s culture and improving living conditions. Most importantly, it will change the lives of hundreds of the most impoverished people in Bolivia.

Marianne Sébastian

Team Leader

Project Team

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Project Participants

The following are UP members who have donated or supported this project.

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