Help Bolivian Youth Access Higher Education

FUNDACION HELPING HANDS - LA PAZ (BOLIVIA)

                            ANNUAL REPORT 2022

Together we have made it possible for so many Bolivian young people in vulnerable situations to finish a programme of studies and open the gates to a future of new opportunities. After three years of facing many challenges due to the pandemic, our students have adapted and surged ahead in spite of the many obstacles. They have shown resilience and determination in working toward their goals and we are very proud of them.

We hope you enjoy our Annual Report for 2022 as you have been fundamental to the success of so many students.

HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES

In 2022 Helping Hands supported 122 students as they continued their programmes of studies. 7 of our high school students graduated as you can see in the pictures above with

their teachers; although one of our girls, Slenka, was unable to attend her graduation, so we are missing a graduation picture of her.

COMPLETION OF POST SECONDARY PROGRAMME

15 of our post-secondary students completed their coursework in their technical or university programmes of study in quite a variety of areas from Gastronomy to Veterinary Medicine. In Bolivia the students are required to complete a thesis, a final project, a directed work assignment or an apprenticeship before graduating and these students will be working on this independently in 2023. 5 of our students who completed their coursework in 2021 had their final graduations in 2022.

FORMER STUDENTS

In addition to seeing our students successfully complete their studies, we are pleased to see the progress and impact that these studies have on our former students and their families. Our former Dentistry student, Gisela, has her own office and a successful dental practice in the city. Gisela now provides dental services for our Helping Hands students. We are very grateful to her as well for the workshops on dental care she has always been willing to give to our students.

Freddy is also one of our former students who studied Civil Engineering. Freddy and his wife, Greis, visited our office last year and brought us a donation of food for our supplementary food baskets ingratitude for all the support he received from Helping Hands for his studies.

Another of our former students, Efraín, who studied Veterinary Medicine, currently has his Veterinary practice with several years of experience and success. Efraín opened his doors to Silvia, a new Veterinary Medicine student at Helping Hands, to do her internship with him. It has been a great learning experience for Silvia.

In 2022 we worked more closely with former students of Helping Hands, and we hope to increase this cooperation in 2023 involving more former students who can provide opportunities for internships for our students and other forms of support for the Foundation.

 OUR STUDENTS VOLUNTEER

We were excited to be able to return to most of our usual activities in 2022 as the pandemic subsided. Throughout the years we have been motivating our students to take the initiative to help others and their community through volunteering. In 2022 our students donated blood, gave presentations on the environment in schools, cleaned

streets and plazas, gave food to the homeless, tutored younger students and much more. This has turned out to be a popular activity with very positive feedback from the students.

INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT

For our students to experience a more comprehensive development, Helping Hands continued with our monthly workshops. The topics that were offered in 2022 included an informative workshop about our Foundation rules and regulations, a talk on the importance of dental health given by our ex-student and dentist Gisela, a workshop on being safe on social media, a meeting in the countryside with a talk on the state of the environment, and an informative workshop about the prevention of sexual abuse in children given by one of our ex-students, Lizeth. Our workshops are designed to strengthen our students’ skills and knowledge and give them the tools they need to face today's world.

FOOD SUPPLEMENTATION AND SCHOOL SUPPLIES

Helping Hands supports children and young people from very low-income families. During the pandemic it was of paramount importance to assist the families who needed food. However, there turned out to be many benefits from including a monthly supplementary food basket for the neediest families. We had direct contact with the families monthly, and we saw that the students were healthier as the baskets contained fresh fruit and vegetables, oatmeal, cooking oil and high protein foods such as eggs, powdered milk, lentils, beans, quinoa and peanuts. During 2022 we continued to provide supplementary food baskets to 24 of our families. We were very grateful to the American Cooperative School for running a food drive to collect items for our food baskets and to our ex-student Freddy A. who also donated dry food.

In 2022, Helping Hands provided our 37 elementary students with all their required school materials, uniforms and special school needs. This is so very important for our younger students as the local schools do not supply notebooks, books, paper, or any other materials for the students making it very difficult for low-income families to keep their children in school. We are very grateful to the Fundacion San Luis for providing the funds for school materials.

OUR CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION

After two years without an end of year celebration, in 2022 we organized our traditional Christmas party with an attendance of about 150 students and family members. We began with our student talent show with singing, dancing and recitations followed by the awarding of participation and graduation certificates. Of course, we then all shared hot chocolate, Christmas bread and cookies before the well anticipated raffle of prizes. To end the evening, all of the students received a Christmas bread, cocoa, powdered milk and cookies and the younger children all received the gift of a backpack, thanks to our generous donors on GlobalGiving.

The Christmas party is a happy occasion to bring together all of our young people, to celebrate the successful conclusion of a year of hard work and much effort to overcome the many challenges they had to face to complete their year of studies.

A FEW FACTS

In 2022, Helping Hands supported a total of 122 students, 79 girls and 43 boys from 10 municipalities in the department of La Paz.

We thank you so very much for partnering with Helping Hands to bring the opportunity of an education to so many vulnerable Bolivian young people. Having an education opens so many doors and breaks the cycle of poverty of so many families. 

Muchos saludos,

Linda