Child sponsorship update from Mallasa (La Paz), Bolivia

Update for child sponsor supporters from the SOS Children's Village Mallasa, near La Paz, Bolivia from Winter 2008.

Dear Sponsor,

Year 2008 has been kind of complicated in our country; however, those difficulties are lived every day within the organisation with tranquility, prevision and a good integration and acceptation of the Community. Thanks to your support and trust, the Programmes of SOS Children Bolivia continue a stable development, which is a contribution in the life of 13.500 beneficiaries this year, from which, more than 1.400 live in a SOS Children’s Village. It’s a pleasure, once again, to be able to share the experiences of the SOS Children’s Villages La Paz with you.

Currently, we are going through the last trimester of this year and we can perceive that in all the families there is a spirit to work and make an effort to get their objectives. Although the combined wills, four or five children will fail their grades; however, there has been a decrease in relation to the last year. We believe that this result, although not completely positive, is due to the common consent of guiding, meditating and working with children about their future, the advantage of their opportunities and the constant support of a school supporting program with professional volunteers.

The population of children within the 13 families of the Village has increased to 110; from which, 56 are girls and 54 are boys. In August, we welcomed seven children; four of them (two girls and two boys, biological siblings all of them) are together in mother Elia’s family. Mother Eliana’s family welcomed other two biological siblings, one 10 year old boy and one 7 year old boy, and a 7 year old girl. All of them are very nice children and now they are still discovering what’s new for them: neighbors, the house, the clothes the family prepared for them when they arrived, etc.

Some children are part of the school’s infantile chorus and they also practice ballet on weekends. Many others are part of the sports teams of the Village and they participate in basketball and indoor soccer championships. This allowed the bonds between adolescents, community and independent siblings who visit the village on weekends to be strengthened, which is an opportunity to talk and transmit their life experiences.

Growing up at Mallasa (La Paz), Bolivia

Thirty one youths older than 15 years old are getting ready to become professionals; some of them live in Youth Facilities and most of them live with relatives, biological siblings or SOS siblings. Thirty two youths has finished their professional studies, work and are in the Advising stage. The support and follow-up are still a constant, but the economical support varies and depends on their incomes in order to develop their gradual independence. Four youths who are already independent, have presented micro-enterprises projects and the funds were already released for one of them and we expect all of them to be working soon.

In this last month, a workshop for young ladies over 15 has been carried out about Care on Reproductive Health, which derived in a preventive health programme where the mothers are in charge of.

We also had a meeting in order to promote the dialogue among a group o mothers, youths who live in Youth Facilities and the supporting personnel. This experience showed that the stage from 15 years old above is hard for the youths, who normally seem to be reticent with their responsibilities. It’s necessary to be patient with them and to show them the limits clearly. This meeting allowed everybody (youths, mothers and collaborators) to express their points of view; we accepted that we all have been acting reactionarily before emergency or any problem. The result has been clear agreements with the common objective of improving the living conditions of the youths by trying to explain to them which everybody’s responsibilities are. We also agreed on having this kind of meetings periodically, which allow a better communication.

Likewise, we want to inform you about other programs of SOS Children’s Villages La Paz, which also let us know about their activities thanks to your support.

Supporting children and communities at Mallasa (La Paz), Bolivia

The covering of the Family and Community Strengthening Programme reached 678 families where 810 children below 6 years old from 25 different communities are being assisted.

The number of families and children increased in comparison to last semester; therefore, it was necessary to outfit other facilities. A Community Centre has been repaired, which has a capacity for 8 children and other Community Centres with capacity for 40 children were also outfitted in different city periphery neighborhoods in La Paz City in a combined work with the Municipality of La Paz.

The services we offer include Technical-Productive qualification workshops for parents of families from the community centers and neighborhood, and personal formation and family strengthening workshops, which also foment their participation in protection social nets for vulnerable groups.

Entrepreneur Education Programme
The Entrepreneur Education programme of SOS Children’s Villages is an educative response to the needs of development in our communities through the Entrepreneurism.

At the SOS School, where 503 students attend to primary and secondary levels, they teach the Entrepreneur spirit to children. We teach the present formation on Entrepreneur Spirit in a cycle of projects and virtual qualification for the facilitators of primary and secondary levels on curricular design under the approach of Competences Based Formation.

Likewise, for students and parents, we develop vocational and formative workshops: Ceramic, Pastry, Healthy Cooking and Macramé.

Entrepreneur Technical formation’s objective is the qualification on technical areas for 70 youths in a social risk situation, who are between 17 to 24 years old and passed the 8th grade. The one year formation has three phases: a Theoretical-Practical phase at the Technical Formation Centre, a Practical phase in companies and/or community, and finally, the Enterprise Incubation phase, when they implement a Business Plan with advising on markets identification, legal constitution of an enterprise, equipment and necessary infrastructure.

As we can summarize, our programmes aim to the children and youths’ development, as well as to a direct community development.

José Pereyra Calla
Director SOS Children’s Village-Mallasa