MISSION AWARENESS TRIP TO BOLIVIA
Sept. 1 - 9, 2007
CFCA offers hope amid poverty and political instability
It is a pleasure to be in touch from Bolivia. Once a part of the great Inca Empire, this huge nation of 9 million people (41 percent under the age of 15) is comparable in size to California and Texas combined. Two-thirds of the population is indigenous, one of the highest percentages in the world.
The legal and administrative right to be the nation’s capital is being hotly contested between La Paz and Sucre. There were violent encounters in Sucre while we visited Santa Cruz and Cochabamba.
The annual per capita purchasing power in Bolivia is $2,900 compared to $41,800 in the United States. More than a third of the population has no access to medical care, 48 percent have no access to good water, and 29 percent have no bathroom or latrine. An estimated 130,000 children work in mines, cane fields and on the streets selling.
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| Sponsored payasitos (little clowns) show off their costumes in Project Santa Cruz. |
From tents to brick homes
CFCA has three projects in Bolivia. They are located in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and La Paz.
About 50 miles north of Santa Cruz lies the CFCA subproject in Okinawa. Day workers here currently make 20 to 30 bolivianos per day (US $2.56-$3.84).
The rural section of Okinawa is struggling back after the devastating floods of January and February 2007. Most of the families we visited still had standing the canvas tents in which they lived for three months. Now they are working on more permanent housing. CFCA sponsors have built two brick homes and contributed a water purification system.
In the third home we visited, Don Pablo fell into my arms sobbing when he recalled the death of his daughter, which converted himself and his wife, Dona Arminda, into parents as well as grandparents to several children. In this setting, I explained to the sponsors and all the neighbors the words to the song “Esmeralda”…“Then let me be your father … your mother … your friend … together we can build one family … and we’ll fight for the freedom of the children of our God … and smile … for we’ll never be alone. …”
We visited sponsored children and families in a rural area surrounding Montero called Villa Copacabana. Most families expressed that they are just scraping by, often with both parents working hard in the chaco (fields/campo) for around $3 per day.
Grim reality of Cochabamba
A total of 66 percent of the people in the area of Cochabamba lack drinking water, 32 percent have no electricity, 22 percent live on less than $1 per day, only 18.9 percent meet their basic needs and 24.3 percent of children under the age of 3 suffer from malnutrition. The infant mortality rate (deaths from respiratory infections, malnutrition and diarrhea) is 61 per 1,000, compared to 6.5 per 1,000 in the United States.
Center uplifts those with special needs
In Cochabamba, we work in partnership with a center for special children and young adults, Fundacion CEOLI, where children receive medical attention, physiotherapy, hydrotherapy and psychology sessions. They also receive work training programs for youth, transportation in special vehicles, breakfast and lunch at school while training workshops for livelihood projects are offered for the parents.
We met charming Anet, age 10, sponsored by Father Rich Tillman. When she was 4, Anet was run over by a huge truck. Both legs have been amputated, one below the knee and one above. CFCA helped with the cost of these operations. Anet is doing quite well now with her new prosthetics. She was able to go everywhere we went during our days in Cochabamba. She owns a little fuzzy dog named Bani and a cat named Clarita.
Anet goes to a regular school, near her home and is recognized as an outstanding student. Father Rich is helping them build an adapted bathroom, which will accommodate the special needs of Anet.
One-room adobe house for seven
In Subproject SF-Champarancho, my group visited the very poor family of Don Felix and Dona Maria, who live in a one-room adobe home with their five children aged 2 to 10. Felix, an orphan from La Paz, fled as a little boy from an abusive stepfather and ended up in a children’s home. Both went only to elementary school. There’s no source of clean water in this home. The open well is deep and contaminated by a recent flood. It struck me as extremely dangerous for the children. I asked Don Felix to cover it for safety and cleanliness. Just to get by, each day both Felix and Maria go out to sell french fries on the streets of Cochabamba … leaving the children alone. Twice thieves entered during the day and took the little they had.
Thank you for traveling with us in spirit and prayer. Very early tomorrow morning, Cristina and I fly from Santa Cruz to Lima, Peru, and on to Bogota, Colombia, for our Staff Formation Days in the Bogota project. We’ll be at CFCA/Kansas City on Sept. 14. We leave for Kenya/Uganda on the 15th.
God's Blessings,
Bob Hentzen
Cochabamba/Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Sept. 9, 2007
Sponsor a child in Bolivia
Read the notes from other mission awareness trips
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