By Silvina Frisso
We have just passed the halfway mark of
our three month volunteering placement here in La Paz and it feels like only
yesterday that we arrived! Our project, Ciudadanos del Mundo, has developed
from solely raising awareness of noise pollution to incorporating this into the
wider concept of 'cultural citizenship' - the right to be different and to
belong (Rosaldo, 1994). We are currently in full-swing of delivering workshops
to the four Acro Iris centres, a foundation that was set up by Father
Neuenhofer in 1994 in order to reduce the number of abandoned children who are
forced to live on the streets - it is estimated that over 3,700 children and
adolescents live on the streets of Bolivia's largest cities (UNICEF). The
foundation thus provides a home for these children: a place of sanctuary where
they have a roof to sleep under, food, health, clothing, education, technical
training and psychological support.
Although challenging at times, delivering
these workshops brings a sense of fulfilment. It is an amazing opportunity for
both the children and ourselves to grow and learn as individuals as well as experience
a cultural exchange. The last two weeks have been extremely busy; they have been jam-packed with a variety
of workshops focusing on sports and leadership, arts and human rights, motivation,
and relaxation and recreational sessions for Casa de Paso, Refugio and Casa
Esperanza. Last week was our last workshop with the young mothers at Refugio.
We delivered a motivation-themed workshop, in which we emphasised the importance
of self-motivation and setting and working towards long-term goals. The girls
thoroughly enjoyed this workshop and have in fact invited us back for tea!!
This week we started the first of our series of workshops at Casa Esperanza - a
home for boys who have come from violent families or whose parents are in jail.
We kicked off with the sports workshop, teaching the boys the basic skills
needed to play touch rugby. Despite it being a ridiculously hot day, the boys'
willingness to participate and their eagerness to learn was admiring, in
particular, seeing the boys use tactics in order to win the mini-game of rugby.
In addition, this week we have started
planning our Guided Learning session. As part of our placement with
International Service, each project group is required to facilitate and lead a
discussion on an essential topic in international development. In doing so, we
are able to enhance our understanding of the sector academically as well professionally.
For the Zebras, our topic is on the root causes of poverty and how this
interlinks with inequality.
Contextually, Bolivia is a
lower-middle-income country with continued economic growth and gross national
income as well as abundant mineral and energy resources. However, in spite of
this, poverty is deeply widespread and engrained across Bolivia; in particular,
among the nation's indigenous population who constitute the majority of the
population. Bolivia is in fact one of the poorest and least-developed countries
in Latin America. The World Bank (2011) estimated that 45% of the population
live in `poverty. The United Nations
Development Programme's Multidimensional Poverty (2011) estimated that 7.8% of
the population live in extreme poverty and that 15.61% of the population lived
below the poverty line of $1.25 per a day.
As a result of the underlying widespread poverty, Bolivia has pronounced
income inequality between different population groups and geographical areas.
In addition, access to benefits, health services and education is limited, especially
in rural areas. The existence of poverty therefore not only affects quality of
life, but hinders a person´s ability to practice and assert their human rights,
such as the right to exercise – this is what our project works towards
changing.
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