newsletter ingles version

Dear all,

Its time to write an update concerning the activities and the developments of the projects where I am occupied with here in Bolivia, some of which are realized with donations I recieve.

I hope that you all doing wel. Here winter has entered early this year. Especially during evenings and night it ´s cold. In day time it is still very nice and warm, easily it hits the 25 degrees and more, but as soon as the sun disappears the temperature drops very rapidly to near zero degrees celcius.
With me it goes well. Busy with the activities and also preparing my visit to the Netherlands. I leave here the 25 th of June and will stay there for almost 2 months. I will temporarily work in the nursing home in Raalte, my hometown, where my parents live now. This way I am close to them and also I can contribute a bit for the care they need . And off course it is nice to have the possibility to see most of my family and friends again.

Here in Bolivia it seems that they have political problems almost permanently. There is always something going on, however here in Cochabamba everything is tranquillo. Economically, prices of all the product raised, for example one year ago you could buy 4 pieces of bread for 1 boliviano , now it costs 2, 80 boliviano. For the poor people this is a big problem.


The update

The school Atiy,
Last February the new school year started. We have 690 students this year. We had to reject students because we just don’t have enough classrooms to place them all. There are lots of children here in Bolivia. The good thing that happened this year is that the government promised to pay the salaries for 5 teachers more. Three teachers are already installed, we are waiting for the two others. The government authorities work slowly and super bureaucratically here. We are already almost half in the school year now. Also we have been promised at the beginning of the school year 40 chairs and 20 tables for the class rooms, but still nothing has been brought . Recently I spoke to one of the responsible people about this; he said that we will receive them early June. By now it is early June but nothing yet. It’s frustrating.
We have a new director: Don Edgar. He makes a very good impression to me, and he has some contacts and friendships within the education system, which is handy here.

The government is working on a plan to finish the constructions of the second floor on our school and they asked us ( foundation Atiy) to help with that, like we did with the roof above the playground of the school. The foundation Atiy is willing to do this, there is need for four classrooms more. The government is working with their architects on the plans and the calculation of the cost for that.
We have reformed the library a little with the result that we have more space there and the room has become more useful. With a donation we received we bought more books for the library. We have Narda working in the library, she is pedagogue, she is great. Doing all kinds of fun learning activities. Her salary and that of two other teachers is paid with donation money.

A group of poor students are going to school thanks to financial support from Atiy. Their montly payment for the school and school material and books are paid for. Also a group of 120 poor students receive every day a warm lunch.

There is a new development within the school. A group of 11 students of the highest classes took the initiative to form a group to organize all kinds of sports, games and other activities on school and after schooltime. A very good initiative which we will very certainly support and stimulate.

Furthermore we have continued with the waste recycle project on school. This is now organized by the school itself. Such project has not yet started at the school in villa Israel because of organizational reasons.

Also the school garden has started this year with aid of Arnold Brouwer. On this site you can read everything about it, www.schooltuinenincochabamba.blogspot.com. We have a plan to give a fruit tree to the family of each student off the school at the end of school year, in the framework of the environment and feeding.

CENTRO DE SALUD, Madre Teresa the Calcutta

The centre is getting more and more patients. For this reason the doctor and nurse work there now fulltime, like the dentist. We have also extended the assortment of the medicines in our small house Pharmacia. Especially now it is almost winter, the demands for flu, and colds medication increase.
With donations it s possible to treat all the children of kindergarten and the children of the child care centre for free. Unfortunately , at this young age , their theet are already badly infected . The cause of this, malnutrition and bad or no teeth-brushing , I blame to the coca cola and the other pop drinks which they drink instead of water or milk.
We have an agreement with the government concerning giving vaccination to children, it´s free.
We have taken distance of the local government, the Prefectura, because they wanted us for their politics instead of supporting the projects. We absolutely don’t want to get involved in that. We are neutral and our goal is basic health care and education for those who are in most need.

youth work for the children of the school Atiy
There is a new volunteer, Angela. She is psychologist and she is busy with arranging and setting up the youth centre project next door to the centro de salud Madre Teresa de Calcuta. From there all kinds of activities can be started to help most of the children. It toke a while before we could start because of lack of time and finding the correct person. With the help of Angela it seems that we are on the right way.

School and child nursery of villa Israel
The school in villa Israel is now entirely finished and has been taken in use. The parents of the children are now busy finishing of the child nursery. Soon the children can be taken care of there.

Water projects in Sinvingani and water well in Primero the Mayo
The water tank has been built with the whole community; the result is perferct. The next step is to connect this tank to the already existing water well. Then a hydraulic pump has to be bought and a waterpipe line is needed to bring the water to the tank.

However a conflict has arisen under the Leaders of the three different villages that will receive water from this project. They quarrel about who will manage the project and who will be in charge. The project is not yet finished and we have decided that we will not finish it until there is an agreement amongst them about who will manage the water and that there will be a fair distribution so that everybody will receive water , and that there is nobody who will enriches himself with this project. I regret and I am ashamed that I have to inform you about this problem, however I am certain that this will come to a good solution.

Primero the Mayo is an another village more at south of Cochabamba. There we are helping the people with drilling a water well. You can see the picture.

Good news: a new van
From the Dutch organisation called Miva I will receive a new van for my work here. I am very happy with that! The application has been remunerated in March 2008, but unfortunately the authorities of the Bolivian customs are very burocratic and take their time to release the car. My old car is really old , breaks down frequently and becomes unsafe. I don’t drive it for long distances anymore and don’t take many people or children along. Not so long ago while driving on my way to San Antonio de Buena Vista a wheel just broke of. Fortunately no accidents happened, only a shock. I just have to be a little more patient about it . The new car is a Toyota Hiace; here they call this car a trufi.

Campo
Regularly I go with sister Fulvia to the Campo (the country). She builds there with financial aid of the foundation HAND boarding schools. I represent that foundation here in Cochabamba. In the mountain village of Pongo this foundation has now built a boarding school for school children so that they can sleep there and eat. These children would not go to school otherwise because the distances are too long to walk up down from home to school every day. The people live in very poor conditions and live is hard . Because they live on an altitude of 4000 meters the climate is extreme and isolated.
In this village I have given the woolen sweaters which I got sent from my hometown Mariënheem. A group of women there has knitted those in the evenings together, very nice. See photographs.

end word
I like to thank everyone by this way for the support. I still like it to be here in Bolivia and to work here and especially to be able to help the people most in need. I am gratefull for being able to do this work here, in spite of the difficulties and stagnation which I encounter sometimes. On the other hand lots of happiness and gratitudes I receive on behalf of you.

Cordial greetings,
Anna Haarman