Bolivia
We work in both urban and rural areas of Bolivia, a country diverse in cultures, languages, geography, and socio-economical conditions.
It is a country with one of the most important indigenous populations, and one of the richest in natural ressources, but also one of the poorest countries in South America.
The Bolivian Human Development Indicator is 0.641 and 64% of its population lives in poverty. The conditions of inegualities are extreme and even more important between the rural area and the cities.
La Mendoza
We carry out projects of cooperation for development in La Mendoza, a rural community in the department of Chuquisaca, currently affected by the mining pollution that seeps directly into their land and the Pilcomayo River.
La Mendoza is a community of the Municipality of Yamparaez, located at 72 Km away from the city of Sucre, on the edge of the Pilcomayo river.
Actually, this community is contaminated by a pollution due to the mining exploitation in the department of Chuquisaca, which directly afects the health of the inhabitants because of the presence of heavy metals in thesoils and in the waters of the Pilcomayo river. The socioeconomical development of the inhabitants of La Mendoza is directly affectd by this pollution because it has been producing an evident ecological disorder reflected by unfavorable environmental conditions such as low fertility of the soils, diminution of number of fish, disappearance or diminution of a great number of sylvestrian species, and what is more alarming, the consumption of contaminated water. To this situation, we can also mention the poor gestion over exploitation of natural ressources without any perspective of sustainable development.
Sucre
Besides, we carry out projects of cooperation for development and of sensibilisation in Sucre, capital city of the 2nd poorest department of Bolivia.
Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia and the capital of the department of Chuquisaca.
70% of the population of Chuquisaca has a significant indicator of unsatisfied necesities, that is to say that they live in housings with insufficient basic conditions of habitability or that they are not connected to water or draining services, that they have a low level of access to education, and inadequat health services.
The situation of extreme poverty, even more in the rural areas, has caused waves of migration. Many persons have mooved from the countryside to the cities, concentrating in some zones, creating periurban circles where the population has to deal with poverty, insecurity and delinquency.
The State has not been able to take care of this population. This situation is reflected by the fact that the streets host many beggers, ambulatory sellers, and children and teenagers who work in order to help their household or to pay their studies.