The two full treatment centers are located in the districts of Tackoloma and Mercado Campesino Arocagua, in the municipality of Sacaba, in the department of Cochabamba. These are districts of moderate and extreme poverty.

Mornings

Every morning, during school hours, volunteers help the schoolteacher, alone for about thirty children with three different levels. During this time slot, the volunteer will oversee monitoring the children’s learning. 

Afternoons

As part of our programme, we work every afternoon from Monday to Friday in the heart of these marginalized neighbourhoods to provide informal education for children. Through activities related to body development, language, art, science, foreign languages, or emotions, we work to strengthen the school system. To do this, we manage classrooms where children can have fun while learning, broaden their horizons, and find themselves facing their rights and responsibilities. In this way, we instil fundamental values in them while developing their self-esteem. 

Our activities

Lots of children with whom we work have difficulties in school. Some of them do poorly and others simply stopped to go to start working. We help them and encourage them to like school. We try to inspire them and to motivate them to learn.

The situation

In many cases, parents are missing almost all day and didn't receive a formal education, so they are not able to give to the children all the attention, support and encouragement they need. In other cases, children simply don't have access to books and the necessary equipment. Then, children risk to follow the same pattern: to work long hours and to be underpaid - the cycle repeats. In order to break this cycle, we try to inspire and encourage children to learn, to provide them a suitable environment to study and to give them access to the necessary resources.

The work of Bolivia Digna

We strengthen the school system managing classes where children can have fun while learning, by extending their horizons, by making them face their rights and responsibilities and by inculcating fundamental values while developing their self-esteem. For children who have specific needs, we give tutoring to help them to understand better the subjects they learn at school and to help them with their homework.

Many children and teenagers love sport, especially football. Through sport, we wish to strength their self-love while teaching values of commitment, responsibility, respect, discipline and teamwork.

The situation

As they don't often have other form of entertainment, children of poor communities spend time kicking a ball in the street or on the cement fields built in almost all neighborhoods of Latin America. Without structure and organization, this environment can be intimidating for the youngest children, particularly the girls, who would also like to have fun and participate.

The work of Bolivia Digna

We exploit the interest and use sport as a means to teach essentials skills and values , and to prevent children and teenagers to take part in antisocial activities in the street. We encourage the youngest children and the girls to participate and even if the focus is on football, we wish to broaden the horizons of children and make them participate to other sports like basket, volley, baseball, frisbee, tennis ...

Even if most of children in high school have english classes, they rarely have the opportunity to hear or speak with anglophones. We encourage them to speak by singing, playing games in english and simply having fun.

The situation

Most of children are already bilingual in Spanish and in an indigenous language and so, have the potential to learn english. They also are exposed to english through popular culture and internet, and, in many cases, they are motivated to learn. However, many parents, and teachers as well, don't take this matter seriously or don't have the skills to support them.

The work of Bolivia Digna

We try to develop their self-confidence and their abilities to communicate by encouraging them to speak english while having fun. We use various techniques as games, songs and movies.

Many children live in communities or accommodations without clean water. Their food is often really poor and hygiene standards are low. We try to improve the situation for the children by teaching them to take better care of their health.

The situation

A poor diet and poor sanitations put the children at risk with chronic and acute illnesses, and infections. Yet, these diseases are largely preventable. But on the fields where we work, health care are not always accessible. Children of these communities are also often physically and psychologically abused. Even if we can't fight all these causes, we try.

The work of Bolivia Digna

Everyday we give drinking water and a healthy snack – fruits, vegetables, eggs, biscuits ... In our classrooms, we provide soaps and water too so that each child is able to wash his hands before eating, but also a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Children living in poor communities have little time to learn new skills and talents that are not immediately "useful".

The work of Bolivia Digna

We fill these gaps by managing projects that, while not created to gain specific knowledge or skills, captivate, entertain and inspire children, and at the same time reinforce the values ​​of our work. We discover and develop talents for art, music, theater, dance... that could have remained hidden.

Some examples of completed projects:
  • A play with children and volunteers. They did together the decoration, the construction of the stage and the design. And of course, on the big day, parents and members of the community came to the show!  
  • A project exploring the geography of Bolivia with a focus on the different climate zones and the different species of flora and fauna present there.  
  • A project to design, build and pilot rockets powered by a "rocket candy".  
  • Singing, dancing, percussion and guitar lessons.
  • Cycling course. Thanks to a donation, we have numerous bikes and we have been able to teach to the little ones to ride a bike, and to the older ones to ride responsibly.

    These projects usually come from volunteers. In addition to helping children, they give local and international volunteers the opportunity to exercise their creativity, showcase their talents, plan and manage an important project.

  • In the poorest communities, young children often find themselves in environments that are not favorable to their development and lack access to basic care and protection. We provide a safe place where children can participate in social, creative and educational activities.

    Why do they need help?

    In families where both parents work long hours, they find it difficult to meet their basic needs, and there are few options for young children. They often accompany their parents to work or stay with their siblings at home. One of the consequences for children is lack of affection, stimulation, social contact at an important time in their life , when they should develop quickly.

    The work of Bolivia Digna

    We provide a safe place where children socialize, learn Spanish, reading, values, fundamentals principles but also to take care of themselves and they can be creative. This project has the advantage of taking away from older siblings the weight of responsibility they would have had - and they too can participate in the activities.

    Since 2018, Bolivia Digna has been supporting even more the two communities in which it has been working since 2014 and helps nursery schools in the morning, with whom we share classrooms for our own activities in the afternoons.

    The situation

    Both kindergartens need help and support with children. Especially in one school, the teacher is alone with 35 children from 3 to 7 years old and it is extremely difficult to manage them all and to have more activities adapted to their age. The risk is that children do not get all the attention and explanations they need at a crucial age (some learn to read and write, as well as basic mathematics) and thus start in life with, already, difficulties at school.

    The work of Bolivia Digna

    Volunteers can work in the morning in a nursery school to help teachers manage classes, but also to offer children activities that are better for their age. The volunteers work with the teachers and support them by helping and re-explaining to the children if necessary. But they are also encouraged to take initiatives, suggest activities and / or prepare activities on a specific theme given by the teachers.

    In general, anything that benefits the community, also benefits children. We initiate, facilitate, and assist with projects or actions that improve the environment, infrastructure, the living conditions and the status of communities.

    Here are some of the different projects we have contributed to:
  • Build and equip the community centers in which we operate;  
  • Build public toilets;  
  • Improve sports facilities;  
  • Replant trees;  
  • Build a park with plants, trails, exercise machines and playground equipment;  
  • Equip and facilitate a sewing school today that has become a small business.

    We are actively engaged with parents and community leaders to help them in their inter and intra-community relations.