FEBRUARY 2007
REPORT ON OUR SOCIAL PROJECTS IN BOLIVIA
The world is not a fair place.
Some have much and others very little. I believe it
is our responsibility to help those who are less fortunate. I believe this is
God's will.
We work on these projects in Bolivia not because we
have any particular connection to Bolivia, but rather because that is the door
that has been opened for us. We partner with Solidarity Bridge, a Catholic
charity under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Chicago which conducts
medical, enterprise and educational missions to Bolivia.
During this most recent trip to Bolivia, I focused on
three projects:
The
Sewing & Weaving Co-ops whose clothing we import and sell
The
Pediatric Cardiac Surgery program we support financially
The
Vision Program for Children we are initiating
I visited each of the four co-ops whose clothing we
import and sell and made suggestions about improving quality, placed new
orders, and added new styles. The goal here is to help people earn a living
through their work.
Warmis is a co-op of women on the outskirts of
Cochabamba who crochet and sew clothing.
Kanchay is the sewing co-op we helped initiate which
sews a major part of our Bolivian children's dresses.
Tata Estaban is a vocational training
program for graduates of a Catholic school in a town in the mountains which
sews clothing for us.
The Weaving Co-op is newly formed and has no
name. They are weaving the alpaca shawls which we are selling for them.
I did a day long workshop demonstrating to the
co-op's leadership, dyeing and decorating techniques for the clothing styles
they produce. The plan is by adding color and artwork to the clothing, they can
be more successful in selling to the middle and upper classes in Bolivia.
Additionally, it will make the clothing more widely sellable in the USA and
Europe.
The goal here is to provide work and therefore income
so these families can improve their situation and sort things out themselves.
In 2006 Dharma again paid for surgeries to repair
heart problems in six children whose parents were too poor to pay for the
surgeries. We do this in partnership with Solidarity Bridge, with a
cardiologist, a social worker and the Belga Clinic in Cochabamba. Many of the
children would have had no future without our help. For 2007, we will be
continuing this program and increasing the number of surgeries. The goal here
is just to save little kids' lives.
Last year I tried to initiate a Free Eyeglass program
for children. I was not able to make much progress. But now, with the help of
Christin Hinojosa of Solidarity Bridge, we seem to be on the verge of starting.
The plan for the first year is for Dharma to underwrite the cost of screening
about 6000 school children from poor families for vision problems, have an
estimated 600 � 1200 examined by an opthamologist, and provide a free pair of
eyeglasses to each child who needs them. The goal here is pretty clear, Every
child should be able to see the blackboard in class.
What makes these programs possible is the work we all
do here each day at Dharma and by our customers who continue to support us.
As for traveling to Bolivia itself, getting there and
back is a nightmare. Cars, buses, planes, buses, planes, taxi's. Unfriendly,
expensive airlines, Cancelled flights, Delayed flights, lost luggage,
impossible connections. A nightmare!
They changed the departure time of the connecting
flight from La Paz to Cochabamba so we had to make a 6 1/2 hour bus ride over a
16,000 ft. Andes pass instead of a 40 minute flight. I particularly didn't
appreciate the burned out husks of buses like ours with crumpled left fronts
which dotted the twisting two lane route through the mountains.
On the other hand, we were invited into the homes
several of the Bolivians with whom we work. In one case for a traditional meal
cooked in the ground with hot rocks. A lot of work for the host and his family
and a neat experience for us.
I had the chance to visit an Alpaca Knitting Co-op
begun some 40 or so years ago by a priest. They now have 500 women in the
countryside knitting high quality designer alpaca garments and an entire plant
processing alpaca from fleece to yarn to finished garments. Very impressive.
All in all, it was a heck of trip.