The start of the good treatment for children Vaccination Campaign

There are some moments in life you just can’t beat. Today, running around the Cochabamba equivalent of the Houses of Parliament with kids from the Fundacion Emmanuel project (ministry for children of prostitutes) campaigning for good treatment of children was definitely one of them. “Ok, this is an important government building with important people so you need to be good. Don’t run, don’t shout.” It just didn’t work. They went nuts, and who can blame them? The good treatment vaccination campaign is all about children voicing their rights. They approach adults with cards with on one side having ingredients for good treatment of children (a bit of respect, understanding, a portion of humour, an abundance of tolerance, a piece of patience, amongst others) and on the other side a space for the recipient to write their name, signature and date, to be vaccinated. And as well as the card and another leaflet they receive a sweet.

We went round in groups of three children. While one would be with one person in one office at their desk the other two would be legging it upstairs to the next one. I couldn’t run and catch them up and tell them to wait, leaving the other one behind, nor could I shout as we didn’t want to get kicked out. This was an awesome opportunity! The kids loved it, running up to the big dogs that run their city and campaigning for something they recognise as being of so much importance to them.

Today the campaign kicked off. We were in the Plaza Principal in the centre of Cochabamba. Throughout the month of September the campaign will be taking place in various areas all over the city. Also in the next city, Oruru, they are campaigning this month too. I will be heading there next week to see how they’re getting on. As well as children from projects vaccinating adults they put on performances too – dances, acts etc. As well as that, Daniel Cuaquira, Director of the Early Encounter Cochabamba programme, was on the mic all day, bigging up children’s rights, explaining what the whole campaign is all about and interviewing various people along the way.

Once again, it is great to see so many children’s projects getting together and working with all eyes on the same goal. That’s what the Toybox-Viva alliance is all about and has been successfully doing through the joint Early Encounter model (known as ‘Red Alert’ in the UK) over the last 4 years here in Cochabamba and in other Latin American cities. With the support of Toybox through planning, prayer and financial support, and with Viva Latin America implementing the work of the alliance out here on the ground, the results have been hugely positive with all boding well for a very exciting future.

All in all it’s been an awesome start to the campaign and everyone’s pumped and massively looking forward to the rest of the month.

Casa de Amistad - House of Friendship

Throughout this year I have been working with the Casa de Amistad project. The Casa de Amistad is a school for children who live in prisons with their parents. There are three prisons close by that the children come from. In most Latin American women’s prisons children are allowed to live inside with their mothers. Bolivia is the only country where the men’s prisons allow children and wives to live there too. In prison each person needs to pay rent for their room which are often only about 8x8 foot – certainly not enough space to fit a family, especially with families here averaging anywhere between 5-15 children (no exaggeration there at all). Those that cannot afford to pay rent sleep in corridors, any corners they can find and if they are lucky the prison chapel. In San Antonio prison every night in its chapel sleeps 30 men side by side with some children there too. Lunch is cooked by prisoners and has to be paid for. Prisons are controlled from the outside, by guards letting people in and out. They never enter. All leadership and rules are made by the prisoners inside. With the extra cost of being in prison it makes financial sense for the rest of the family to move in. There is often no other option but to do so with so many families in Bolivia under such financial constraints.

Such conditions put families under great strain and creates huge social difficulties. Families become desperate for money to cover their costs of living. Such is the need of many families is that as the children and other innocent parent leave the prisons in the daytime the children often end up spending their days selling whatever they can and begging in the streets to earn as much money as possible. With this being their daily life they therefore miss out on being educated, and without education this leads later on to a probable outcome of unemployment for them. With unemployment continuing so does the desperation to survive, and statistically speaking this leads many on to getting involved in crime - and so the process sadly continues. Pressure on children to provide financially for their families at such a young age, and with enough never being enough, often leads to the lure of running away and living elsewhere becoming more and more attractive.

The Casa de Amistad provides education for children from the prisons, right from kindergarten through to turning 18. The children receive a good education in a project run by qualified teachers and psychologists and they take their exams just in the same way as any other school receiving the same qualifications. As well as an education the children receive the psychological support they need. Sadly many children are victims of abuse in the prisons – physical, sexual and verbal. Such issues need to be carefully taken care of with the children and in collaboration with parents.

As well as providing a service for the children, communication with parents is an important part of the work too in order to emphasise to them the importance of an education for their children. There are about 90 children enrolled at the Casa de la Amistad. Daily attendance is often about 60-70. There are only a small number of children that attend every day. Many come just a few days in the week. Over the last year there has been about a 70% turnover in children. Consistency in attendance has always been a challenge. A common reason for children leaving the project or attending sparingly is parents having to weigh up the option of allowing their children consistent education or having them working on the streets and in the markets bringing in money in for the family.

Part of my role in helping has been visiting the two men’s prisons each week. In both there are a group of lads I meet up with. The aim is to focus on meeting with the men who have children in the project but there are always more who like to get involved. Consistent contact and encouragement with the parents is so important in order to keep the children attending the Casa de Amistad. We spend our time playing games and having a laugh, chatting through their problems, and if they are interested they take part in the Christianity Explored courses which I’m running. It’s all very relaxed and I’m often told how much of a difference it makes to have someone come and listen to their thoughts and stories without instantly judging and putting a label on them.

I work alongside a lady called Lourdes who is a psychologist at the project and heads up the prison visiting. She is an awesome lady with a huge heart for all that goes on at the Casa de Amistad. I cannot speak more highly of her and it’s been great working with her. Recently she attended a worldwide conference for prison educators that takes place every four years. This year it was in Stockholm. She had a great time there and received a big chunk of vital training with also opportunities to meet other prison educators. This was a special time for her and she has come back refreshed and with lots of inspiration and new ideas. With some of the money that those of you donated towards the 3 peaks challenge I did last summer and at Honfest 2009 we were able to help Lourdes out with her travels. She sends a HUGE thank you.

Gooooooooooooooollllaaazzooooo!!!!!!!

Over the course of 5 or 6 weeks there was a football competition for street children organised by leaders of a children’s home for children coming off the street. At Viva I work with a guy called Joe *name changed due to privacy reasons* with two groups of street children. One group live under a busy main road in a drainage ditch. The other live near a river under waterproof sheets that have been tied up between trees. We visit each group once a week. At the moment here in Bolivia it is winter. In the daytime the weather is easily like our summer however in the mornings and throughout the night it gets very cold. Today I learned that 18 people died last night simply due to the cold. It is sad that just a couple more blankets each may have saved each of these persons’ lives. Please pray for those sleeping on the streets at night across Bolivia this winter.

About 6 teams of street children entered the competition as well as the groups Joe and I visit. With the money you kindly contributed we were able to buy the two teams football kits – one Barcelona, and the other of course Liverpool. Team photos are attached in this email. Photos of the games are on my facebook.

Games were played Wednesday mornings. Immense fun was had all round, of course by the boys enjoying taking part and the girls cheering and screaming their teams on. You wouldn’t believe some of the skill on show. No Peter Crouch’s or Emile Heskey’s. No ‘kick and run’ tactics as England were labelled as adopting at the World Cup by Franz Beckenbauer. It was all Kaka, all Messi with an “it’s my ball and I’m going to score” approach.

The evening after the final round of games everyone was invited to the awards evening held at the children’s home that put on the competition. There was a party before the prizes were given out with music, food and a raffle. As well as to have fun this was a great opportunity for the street children to see the home, the children living at the home whose lives and opportunities had improved, to see the school nearby and to talk to some of the leaders of the home. For a child to come off living on the street into a home or to go back to their family it has to be their decision. All these children know the opportunity is there – for a home, a bed, 3 meals a day, an education. They just have to ask. However the pressure to remain on the street is a big one. To make the decision would be seen by your peers as to be pulling out of your gang of mates on the street and leaving them. Given the liberty street living children have the lure of education and living under rules and leadership is not a strong one. However we continue to pray and hope the lure of a loving community will turn their hearts and that the motivation to learn and provide a future will come.

Viva World Weekend of Prayer

Hope you’re all well. This weekend gone, some of you may know, was the Viva world weekend of prayer for children at risk. Projects, city networks and Churches worldwide have been putting on events to pray for children all over the world who are suffering.

Here in Cochabamba we had the stadium booked which was awesome! Leaders and children from various projects stood up front and talked about their projects and prayed. It was emphasised throughout and leading up to the event here that children are the inheritance of God given to parents, the community, the state, and the Church and that therefore it is important that we pray for them and with them.

The 5 main points of prayer were for:
- Children suffering from violence.
- Children that do not have a family.
- Children who have no access to education.
- Children who go hungry.
- Children suffering from HIV or AIDS.

We also had singing, games and clowns on show too! After the service all the projects grouped up. Each had banners, balloons, faces painted etc. We all left the stadium, stopped the traffic and marched out onto the street. We did a bit of a round trip and ended at a plaza where we all prayed together for the last time and then let off the balloons. On the day we reckon about 2000 were involved which is amazing!

Overall, the day was extremely encouraging and did wonders to further enhance the work of Early Encounter in Cochabamba. Awareness was raised in abundance. All the projects are so grateful for the help they receive from the network through training, funding and prayer and they were all really encouraged for us all as a whole to get together on this day. Everyone knows and sees it is a model that works. Television cameras were about on the day – in the stadium and while we were marching - interviewing project leaders, children and the Early Encounter coordinator. Since I have been here more Churches and projects have been joining the network, children from projects have been on television talking about their dreams for Bolivia’s future and in a couple of regions the local Governments have shown interest. The work is not just impacting on a local level but on a state level too. Politicians and big organisations are showing interest which is exactly part of the Viva mission too – a global movement.

And it’s fantastic to see it happening.

Thanks for reading.

Part 2 - Cochabamba

Hope you are all well. Firstly sorry for the big delay from part 1. Have been spending the last few weeks in Peru sorting out this faff of a visa. After just about collecting all my documents together, solving passport problems and getting through a memorable hour of police custody on the Bolivia/Peru border I finally got there. Was an interesting situation to test my Spanish in! The police were very friendly. I tried to get a photo with them before hitching a lift the rest of the way to the border but they declined, however they did give me a banana.

Anyway, after Oruru we took the four hour bus ride to Cochabamba. We rested for the remainder of the day. We were all quite tired after our excursions at our first Bolivian wedding the night before. The week ahead we spent visiting projects that are all a part of the Red Alert Cochabamba program which is part of the Toybox/Viva Latin American partnership. Again, like Oruru, it was fantastic to get a great outlook on how these connected projects across Cochabamba are doing; which areas they are serving in and the effects each are having on children and families. It was a very overwhelming week, arriving at projects and meeting such wonderful people and being introduced to the children and then moving on to another. While it is very emotional to see the scale of children with such scarred histories across all the projects, it is massively encouraging to see the work and commitment staff are putting into caring for these children. We visited such a range of projects. Some projects had considerably better facilities than others – more books, better equipped kitchens, cleaner environments, better tables and chairs, etc – however all the children were so happy with what they have and where they are. While quality facilities are important, nothing beats having quality staff. When giving towards projects we are often pleased when we see results with projects receiving more facilities, which of course is great, however we often overlook the staff and volunteers leading these projects and the work they do. It is important that as part of our donating we recognise we are also giving towards the lives and well-being of the committed workers and volunteers at these projects. They too have needs to feed their families, to take breaks to recharge and focus. I remember an afterschool project in Oruru running on minimum facilities, however the children there were absolutely having the time of their lives. They look forward to their time there every day and they are sad when they leave. They make the most out of the little they have and they learn and play and rest. Results like this in children’s lives at a project occur most certainly first and foremost due to the loving, committed and caring nature of the staff.

One day in the week we spent an afternoon playing football with a group of street children. These children spend their lives living in a drainage ditch that runs under a main road (see http://www.youtube.com/alastairwelford?gl=GB&hl=en-GB#p/a/u/0/04RzpRQwttk ). This group of children is now 9 but in the past has been up to 25. Every day in the week they spend their time washing car windscreens on a busy road towards the centre of town earning whatever they can. This is very dangerous with traffic passing very quickly and with these children often under the influence of drugs or glue-sniffing to help get them through their physical and mental pain throughout the day. This is obviously something no child should spend their lives doing. To spend an afternoon with this group of children, aged about 8-17, giving them the opportunity to have a kickabout for about an hour or so, to have a laugh, drink coca cola, to chat, get up to a bit of mischief and just be what they want to be is huge for them. One of the boys, aged 17, who made a real connection with Dad when he visited a year and a half ago was visibly overwhelmed to see him again. It clearly means a huge amount to these children to not just meet a foreign person from far away visiting for the first time, but to actually see them again returning means a whole lot more.

It was great to see Mum and Dad and sad to see them go. They then went on to Guatemala for 10 days so if you’re interested to know more about their excursions there ask them or you can read their blog at http://www.makinglifework.co.uk/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=2939 (scroll down).

Since arriving back from Peru we have been moving offices to a more central location in the city so we have been busy with that. This week I am starting work with a project called Casa De La Amistad (house of friendship), a project that schools children who live in Cochabamba’s prisons. In many Latin American prisons if a parent gets sentenced then the whole family are allowed to move in, which often happens, as this is a more affordable situation. Obviously a prison is a horrific place for any child to be in. Children and wives/husbands (whichever are not convicted) are allowed out in the daytime and have to be back in by 5pm. I am going to be doing prison visits, meeting with the parents, helping them and assisting with Bible Studies. Will report about how it goes in my next blog.

Thanks for reading.

For photos see facebook or http://www.flickr.com/photos/82329049@N00/

Part 1 – Ongoings with the old folks in Oruru

From left to right: Kattya (Bolivia's best translator), Mum, Me, Noemi (Viva Oruru Director), Dad

Well it seems a while since I last wrote. Since then the 100 day countdown for South Africa 2010 has started, the snow has gone and the rain has come (not here I must add – blissful sunshine) and, well, not a lot else. They do say that January and February are the most boring months of the year...

March 1st brought a couple of excited visitors here to check up on me... my parents. They were over for a few weeks which was great. An inevitable few stomach bugs aside we had an awesome time. After meeting them bright and early at La Paz airport, crashing at the hotel, hitting a cafe, visiting a church, freaking Mum out showing her the llama foetuses they sell at the local market (more on this later), a big dinner and bed, we hit the city of Oruru the next day (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/82329049@N00/ for a few (alive) llamas we met along the way and other bits).

Oruru is a very difficult place to describe. There are clear signs of underdevelopment throughout the city with poverty more obvious. Unlike Cochabamba where in most places the roads are well built, the infrastructure better planned, where there are more ‘western’ style shops and high-rise buildings, Oruru is a dusty, dark place with litter filling large areas and quality of housing being obviously worse. Add to this the population of Oruru has a very mixed belief system. Catholicism is strong alongside a firm focus on Bolivian traditions and rituals. We visited the Catholic Cathedral. Inside it was similar to any regular Cathedral you are used to seeing however, via passing through the Cathedral, underneath is a mineshaft. In this mineshaft is a horrifyingly ugly model of a Devil who was and is still worshipped and given offerings (most prominently alcohol, cigarettes and money). It is believed through tradition that the Devil, ‘the God of the underworld’, will protect those there in the mines. It is nicknamed ‘El Tio’ (Uncle) to help try portray a friendly and loving image of someone who will protect you. Rituals throughout the city include regular burning of incense outside houses and shops asking for safety, wealth, job security, plane tickets... anything. Another includes burying a llama foetus under your house for evil spirits underground to consume, thus keeping them away from your house. The bigger the house, the bigger the foetus. I have heard of blocks of apartments, given their bigger size, having human bodies buried alive underneath.

One huge problem across Bolivia, being highly unrecognised, is that of child abuse. In 8/10 families across the country child abuse takes place. This is a statistic that comes as a surprise to so many Bolivians when told it and this is why action is being taken by Viva, largely through its Child Ambassador Scheme, to put a stop to it. In every project – daycare centres & homes – has 3 or 4 elected Ambassadors. These Child Ambassadors are the voices of their projects. They speak at Churches, events, on the streets asking for signatures for petitions and most recently and amazingly in Cochabamba, on television on such issues.

We visited many projects across Oruru that Viva is working with. There are huge amounts of work being done with much credit going to numerous people putting their hearts and souls into serving children in their areas. All very very challenging stuff! From talking with the project leaders and volunteers the commitment is clearly huge. In the past projects like these functioned largely independently. As projects they had no accountability or resources for knowledge and support. It has been incredible to see the massive positive influence Viva is having across this city on such projects. Not just from the example of Oruru but governments across Latin America are approaching networks wanting to know what’s going on. Many governments just don’t know in what direction to head when faced with all these situations of such desperation. Once they see and learn about what is going on through Viva and how it has set itself up to function they want to know more. They see that there is a sustainable setup in place that doesn’t just involve feeding a group of families and moving on or giving away money and not educating the recipients adequately on the best way to use it. They see that Viva are providing people with long-term skills and opportunities to develop into educated people having very good chances of reaching potential. EXCITING!

Of course this ball can only keep rolling and the results improving with help from people like you. If you would like to make a donation and support the ongoing work of the Early Encounters Viva/Toybox partnership then please visit http://www.toybox.org.uk/index.html to do so. Any amount is massively appreciated and goes such a long way. At two of the projects I have been volunteering at, Fundacion Emmanuel and Casa de Amistad, I have asked each why they can’t expand their work in certain ways. There are wonderfully passionate people at these projects willing to help and their programs run hugely successfully. But there is still so much more potential that can be reached. I asked Fundacion Emmanuel why it only operates Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – providing a caring daycare service to children whose mothers are prostitutes - and Casa de Amistad why they couldn’t have a few dormitories on sight so the children didn’t have to go back to the prisons to sleep every night. The solitary answer from both was simple: ‘We don’t have enough’. Having seen how immensely amazing we get it in the UK – the way our country is so developed, where money is being spent and all the benefits we get – it is puzzling that there are amazing projects here struggling day by day to provide basic, essential services to children that are so deprived and are living in awful situations facing malnutrition, abuse, lack of education, the list goes on... So please kindly consider what you can do to help these people.

There are so many untold stories and details I haven’t gone into here. If I did I could go on and on and on and on... so you’ll have to ask me.

Anyway, part 1 over. In part 2 the next stop is my hometown - Cochabamba.

‘till then,

Ciao x

Hope you are all doing very well. I am now in Cochabamba, Bolivia and have been having a great time so far. Christmas and New Year in Costa Rica was a good one. Very fun-filled with most people in the country having two weeks holiday. Highlights included trips to the local fair, the bull-fighting, seeing mates and endless boxing day bingo with the neighbours. A non-highlight was having half my plate of Christmas dinner filled with rice - you just can’t get away from the stuff over here.

Please feel free to have a look at my...
Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/jonniewelford
and Flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/82329049@N00/
Or visit my Facebook for more photos.

I arrived here in Cochabamba on the 2nd January. Flying down from Costa Rica I had a stop in Lima, Peru and then had a night in La Paz as the next flight wasn’t until the next morning. La Paz has the highest airport in the world at 4,000 metres above sea level. From the airport I took a taxi down the hill to the city - the view was awesome, although it was better the next day seeing it in daylight!

Here in Cochabamba I am staying with Ines’ (the Viva Regional Consultant for Bolivia and Peru) family who are great. Cooked meals and bed made each day means I am being very much mothered. The majority of my weeks are spent volunteering with two projects that are members of the Early Encounters project run by the Viva/Toybox partnership with a bit of time in the Viva office doing various administrative tasks.

One project is called Esperanza Viva. This is a home out in the West of Cochabamba which involves taking two “taxi-trufi’s” – an awesome public transport service of minibuses. The drivers try to squeeze as many people in as possible so it’s very normal to be squashed between two old Bolivian ladies wearing all the gear (see http://sallyd.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/ssl22023.jpg), although each journey works out at about 12p so I guess you get what you pay for. The home currently houses nine families that have come off living on the streets. The children get enrolled in the local school and the parents go through rehabilitation for whatever they need, for example problems such as alcohol, child and drug abuse. I asked one of the volunteers that work with the parents what learning techniques they use to help them deal with and work through their issues. Expecting an elongated, complex answer in Spanish, most of which I probably wouldn’t understand and one that I would just have to nod my head to, he simply told me they consistently teach them the message of God’s rescue mission from the Bible and that seems to be working wonders. He told me that a change of the heart needs to happen. These people do not need rules, rituals or distractions. Something else to think about or do will never satisfy or bring about a real change. They need to know what life is all about. They need to know the answers to life’s seemingly unanswerable questions – How did I get here? Is there a God? What’s going to happen after I die? Realising that a creator God exists who sent Jesus to take on the just punishment we deserve for ignoring him and that this historical fact has implications for our lives in the present and for eternity changes a person’s life and priorities radically. Christianity is not a list of rules. It is a realisation of our shortcomings in the face of an awesome God who has given us life and as a result we should thank God and accept Jesus’ offer of forgiveness when he took all of God’s just wrath for our sin on the cross 2000 years ago when he was crucified. Religion is man's attempt to save himself, while Christianity is God's way of saving man. Seeing the change this message has had in the lives of families at Esperanza Viva has been amazing. Their lives are not changed by their own strength but by knowing, accepting and trusting the bigger picture to life. On the sight there is a bakery where various cakes are made and sold at the market, a garage and a carpentry workshop - all providing opportunities for the parents to learn and develop skills that will come in useful for when they are ready to leave the home and make a living.

The second project I am volunteering at is called Fundacion Emmanuel. This is an after-school club for children whose mothers are prostitutes. In the morning it has children ranging from 5-10 years-old before they head off to kindergarten and in the afternoon more children, aged from about 10-16, arrive after having been at school in the morning. About 18 children attend in total. While at the project the children receive Christian teaching and have time to do their homework and play. Coming from the family backgrounds they are in this is a very challenging project with the children receiving teaching and morals very different to what they receive at home.

Last Friday afternoon I visited a project called Casa de Amistad – House of Friendship. This is a school for children whose parents are in prison. The project schools children all the way through to when they are 18. In many South American prisons, if a mother or father is sent to prison the family, if they wish, move in too. Inside these prisons the living conditions are horrendous. Each family has a room, about 6x6 foot – just for a whole family. Bathrooms are shared and the only meal available in the day is lunch, which has to be paid for. I visited the prison for male criminals (there is another one for females). The place was an absolute mad house. It was smelly, absolutely packed and full of despair and desperation to escape. Hygiene was a no. It really was the most awful place a child could grow up in. A dirty place full of fighting and swearing should not be a place a child lives. It made me realise how lucky I am and how much needs to be done. It was disgusting. I was taking a walk last week alongside a lake just on the edge of city. The scenery was absolutely stunning however when you hear of newborn babies that have been placed in plastic bags and put in the lake to drown you realise the desperate situations that people face. Situations like this are unimaginable. Massive credit is due to fantastic projects such as Casa de Amistad that offer help to those in these horrendous circumstances. The mothers and children are allowed to leave the prison in the daytime and Casa de Amistad does a great job in offering the opportunity to school these children.

Well that’s it for this edition. Hope you have enjoyed reading.

If you would like to donate to any of the projects I have mentioned so far in my blogs then please email me to arrange this at jonniewelford@hotmail.com.

Or if you would like to support the ongoing Early Encounters Viva/Toybox partnership work in Latin America please go to the Toybox website where you can make regular donations, sponsor a child or get more information at www.toybox.org.

For further information about the work of Viva, the organisation I volunteer for, you can visit www.viva.org.

Thanks.