In this issue
Progress in Bolivia Demonstrates Effectiveness, Creates Opportunity
Amizade's partnership in Cochabamba, Bolivia has borne
clear results and established new opportunities for
volunteers and community members. Volunteers in the
October program for individuals will continue efforts to
expand the school in Viloma, a rural mountainside
community twenty minutes from Vinto, in the
Cochabamba Department. This school project comes
only after successful completion of efforts to expand
and develop facilities at the Hogar de Ninos orphanage
in Vinto.
On a recent Global Citizenship course in Bolivia,
University of Pittsburgh students witnessed the multi-
year effects of volunteer programs at the Hogar de
Ninos orphanage and broke ground on the public school.
Through two weeks of construction, this group of five
students and their instructor worked with Amizade's
local site director Jean Carla Costas, and local masons
Felix, Juan and Renee completed the walls on
one new classroom and began construction on a
second. Community members served alongside this core
group, and took great pains to demonstrate
appreciation for the volunteers' efforts by arranging
appreciation parties that included no less than wreaths
of flowers, music, speech making, traditional dances,
soccer games with local children, a poetry recital, and
flower petal confetti throughout the events.
Volunteers in the October program will also have the
opportunity to share food, games and service time with
community members. While in the city of Cochabamba,
volunteers may experience La Cancha, the largest open
air market in all of the Americas, or sit in La Plaza de
Catorce de Septiembre, gazing at the tiled sidewalks
and Spanish buildings in the bustling yet pacific public
square. Only an hour and a half from the city, the arid
mountainous terrain that characterizes most of the
region gives way to the jungle of Incachacka, where
volunteers hike and - if adventurous - plunge into the
swift stream carving gorges into the bedrock.
The construction materials Amizade provides to
communities through volunteer program fees are
matched in Viloma with community donations of
volunteer time, logistical assistance with finding and
sorting foundational rocks, and the labor-intensive
efforts of gathering and sifting the sand used in
cement. The Viloma school serves four hundred
students, and is currently filled to capacity, with
students crowded on benches in small classrooms. The
commitment that community members have
demonstrated through their labor efforts and the
incredible displays of appreciation for the volunteers
who have already visited Viloma make clear how
essential these collective efforts are, and how difficult
it is for the community to raise the funds for
construction supplies independently. The October
volunteer program begins October 10 and concludes on
October 30.
Visit Amizade's Bolivia Page
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Amizade volunteer program places are quickly
disappearing. Now is the time to connect with a 2004
service experience!
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Participate in the History of the American West
Volunteers at the OTO Ranch near Gardiner, Montana
become historians, anthropologists and construction
experts while serving in one of the most beautiful
valleys in North America. Opportunities still exist to
participate in the August volunteer program for
individuals. Since the OTO Ranch was re-discovered ten
years ago, volunteers alone have pulled this sprawling
piece of American history back from the brink of total
deterioration.
One of the first guest ranches in the American West,
the OTO was utterly abandoned for over fifty years
leading up to the mid-nineties. Volunteers who serve at
the ranch become part of history, by repainting the
bright red window frames outside the smoking room
where Teddy Roosevelt once played pool, or by
replacing links in the jackleg fence that once separated
pastures for hundreds of horses.
Sitting on the front porch of the ranch and appreciating
the beauty of the region or gazing through the clear
and arid night sky at Montana's stars are unparalleled
sensory experiences in themselves, but the caldera
that molds the volcanic activity in nearby Yellowstone
Park provides a set of sightseeing opportunities that
simply cannot be accessed together anywhere else in
the world.
Volunteers often spend an evening traveling to Lamar
Valley, inside Yellowstone Park, where hundreds of head
of bison roam as the sun dips below the mountains.
Other evenings are spent at Mammoth Hot springs or, if
water levels allow, sitting in the warm pools formed by
hot spring water along the nearby river. The charm of
Gardiner itself, a small town with a winter population
under 1,000 that sees its streets swell with excited
visitors every summer, captivates many volunteers who
often enjoy hard-earned ice cream cones from one of
the local shops before strolling through town. Amizade
still has spaces available in late summer volunteer
programs at the OTO.
Visit Amizade's OTO Page »
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The Lure of Brazil
Brazil is an extraordinarily popular travel destination.
Although it is more distant than many other parts of
Latin America, Brazil has a mystique that draws people
toward it. The Amazon, both river and jungle, beckon,
and the traditions, from rodissio to carnival, hold a
certain allure. Brazil is also the country where the first
Amizade program took place, and contains the site
where Amizade gained its name. Amizade means
friendship in Portuguese.
Projects in Brazil routinely give volunteers the
opportunity to increase the organizational capacity of
nonprofits in and around Santarem. Past efforts have
expanded opportunities for street children to access
schooling and vocational opportunities, expanded the
capacity of health-related nonprofits, and increased
access to employment for women. No Brazil experience
would be complete without a trip on the Amazon, and
volunteer programs typically include a riverboat trip.
There are ample hiking opportunities through the
rainforest, and the local open-air market is open daily.
Along the mighty Amazon, far inland in the largest
country in South America, Amizade's volunteer
opportunities are clearly aligned with community
interests in Santarem. This fall, individuals may
volunteer with Amizade in Brazil between September 26
and
October 9.
Visit Amizade's Brazil Page »
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