Plan Bolivia Annual Progress Report 2009

A YEAR IN

BOLIVIA 09

SUMMARY REPORT

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GOOD REASONS why Plan works in Bolivia

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BOLIVIA

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Country Office Programme Unit

BOLIVIA FACTS Capital: La Paz Population: 9.3 million Language: Spanish Climate: Although Bolivia lies entirely within tropical latitudes, climatic conditions vary widely from tropical in the lowlands to polar in the highest parts of the Andes.

Economy: Bolivia has the lowest GDP per capita in South America. However, the country is rich in natural resources. Agriculture accounts for roughly 15% of Bolivia’s GDP. Soybeans are the major cash crop, sold into the Andean Community market. Bolivia’s government remains heavily dependent on foreign assistance to finance development projects.

“We have a common objective: to improve children’s quality of life and promote their rights.”

A child learns at an early childhood development centre

– Juan Felipe Sánchez, Plan’s Country Director

A YEAR IN

BOLIVIA 09 SUMMARY REPORT

FOCUS ON: A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR CHILDREN Children who grow up in a healthy, safe environment are far less likely to fall ill, miss out on schooling and be denied the opportunity to pull themselves out of poverty. Plan is improving children’s home and community environments by helping families access clean water and proper sanitation.

We also teach them about good hygiene practices. We aim to protect children from Chagas disease, a chronic illness caused by infestation of the vinchuca beetle.

Our work also extends to supporting families after a natural disaster, providing water, sanitation and measures to protect children’s health and long-term recovery.

A FUTURE AFTER THE FLOOD

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Youth participate in a ‘Learning for Life’ workshop

The Bigger Picture

Plan is working with children, families and whole communities to address the problems that Bolivia faces. This report can only tell a small part of that story. As a further insight, last year we also: • Raised educational standards by training 2,153 teachers and teaching volunteers • Protected children from disease by building or upgrading 232 latrines • Offered vocational and business training to 2,087 people to help families improve their incomes • Worked to keep children safe from harm by training 1,567 community members and volunteers in child protection.

Your support as a sponsor is crucial to achieving these positive results. So on behalf of the communities, partner organisations, and most of all the children we work with – thank you!

“A disaster can rip through the heart of a community, destroying the progress Plan and families have made together on creating a better future for their children.”

To learn more about Plan’s work in Bolivia visit plan.org.au/ourwork/southernamerica/bolivia

Produced for Bolivia by the Australian National Office.

t 54, Margaret considers herself a little old to be living in a tent, but this is currently the home she shares with her husband, daughter and six sons.

Margaret and her family used to have their own home in Quebrada Alvarez, a rural community in eastern Bolivia. Life there was good. It was a pretty place with lots of trees, a school and land to grow crops and rear animals. It was a friendly place too, where the neighbours all knew each other and would help each other out.

But recently everything changed for Margaret’s family and their friends. Margaret recalls: “Constant rains started to fall. At the beginning it rained every day for a whole week, and on the last day it rained for five to seven hours.

In all, 56 families had to be evacuated from the flooded area and taken uphill to safety at a camp in Puerto Rico. Margaret’s home and land were destroyed. “All our crops were ruined and we lost everything,” she says.

Destroying progress Sadly, Margaret’s ordeal is all too common in developing countries like Bolivia. According to the 2008 World Disasters Report, around 200 million people had been affected by disaster the year before, a disproportionate number of these in the poorest communities.

Plan’s work with vulnerable families around the world inevitably means we confront disasters, whether natural, like flooding, or man-made, like conflict. A disaster can rip through the heart of a community, destroying any progress Plan and families have made together on creating a better future for their children.

“When we first arrived, we were sad,” says Margaret. “We did not want to eat, my children did not want to study, we lacked money and food was scarce.”

Planning for the future Getting supplies to families was clearly essential.

Working with local, national and international agencies, Plan distributed essential food items like lentils and oatmeal, and basics like soap and clothing. We provided stoves and gas for cooking.

Plan’s strength during a disaster lies in families’ long-term recovery, particularly for children.

We supported training in education, so that children could return to schooling, spend time with their friends and return to some kind of normality. We taught families about hygiene and how to protect their children’s health and safety at the camp, and we trained them in preparing for disasters in the future.

Margaret isn’t where she’d like to be right now, but she recognises that life is slowly improving.

“We have improved cleaning and health,” she says. “We do not argue, we participate in clean-up campaigns.”

With Plan’s support, she is also looking to life outside the camp, and what she will do should flooding occur again.

She explains: “In disasterpreparedness workshops we were taught to organise ourselves. What we are taught will serve to improve our lives in the community.”

Some names have been changed for child protection and privacy purposes.

Children are particularly at risk during and after a disaster. Many endure physical trauma during the event, and then have to cope with the deaths of family members, the loss of familiar surroundings like their home or school and the lack of shelter, food and water.

“In disaster-preparedness workshops we were taught to organise ourselves.”

plan.org.au