Bolivia
ATD Fourth World has been active in Bolivia since 1994, and has been developing its activities in La Paz, El Alto, and Coroico.
Our main areas of activity are the following:
- The Friendship House in Senkata, a deprived area of the city of El Alto. The Friendship House provides a space for meeting and friendship for families living in great need, as well as for volunteers and friends of ATD Fourth World. Adults, young people and children escape their isolation through renewed community life (practically all of the families come from a rural community with which they have maintained contact to a greater or lesser degree). The various activities on offer (music, local handicrafts such as traditional weaving, sports, computing, discussion meetings) reinforce the people’s self-confidence, validate the indigenous culture from which they come, encourage their self-expression and participation in society, stimulate the children’s imagination and creativity, and strengthen family ties.
- In partnership with the network of libraries in Senkata, ATD Fourth World organises three street libraries in the Senkata neighbourhoods of Urkupiña, Atipiri, and Andino.
- In 1998, ATD Fourth World built a community laundry in Apanto, a hamlet attached to the town of Coroico in the La Paz region. This laundry is a meeting place for fathers and mothers who come along with their children to do their laundry. This place has been the starting point for Tapori activities, street libraries, and an annual Festival of Knowledge. Meetings between families from Senkata, Coroico, and Cusco (Peru) take place regularly. Two permanent volunteers live on site and help to develop the Tapori Network and relations with new very poor communities in Coroico, especially Afro-Bolivian communities who are subject to multiple forms of discrimination.
- An average of 300 children from La Paz, El Alto, Cobija (in Bolivia’s Amazonian region) and Coroico, divided into eleven groups, participate in the children’s friendship network Tapori. The administration of the Tapori Network for the Spanish-speaking world is based in Boliva.
- Information and education: by means of meetings, exhibitions, and the celebration of October 17 with various partners, ATD Fourth World raises awareness of the lived realities and courage of people living in extreme poverty. We promote concrete actions that members of society can take to join poor people in their struggle against poverty.
Evo Morales – Honorary Ambassador for Childhood and the Family
