Programme NotesThe World of Difference Bolivia programme shows the importance of the basic essentials especially water to sustaining and developing communities.
Aims:
Synopsis:
Six students from the comprehensive Harrogate Grammar School have been working with their school’s charity Quaker Bolivia Link on a project in a rural village in Bolivia, called Sivincani.
The Harrogate students go to Sivincani to see how their project with the villagers to build greenhouses and water pumps is making a difference. The greenhouses mean families can grow a wider variety of crops; the water pumps mean families have access to clean water.
This all seems to be a success, but the younger people in the village have been on the edge of all the celebrations. And when the students finally get to talk to a teenager called Celia they are shocked to hear that she and her friends want to leave Sivincani for a better life in the city.
The students try their hand at living off the land and find it’s not easy. They then go to Bolivia’s biggest city La Paz to discover what the attraction is. There they see the markets and more affluent way of life, before visiting the ramshackle development El Alto that has grown up around the outskirts of the city. They meet a group of women who used to struggle to earn a living, but have formed a co-operative to provide the sort of community network often lacking in the city.
Finally the young people return to Sivincani to find out what the people think the future holds for their community. Florentina, the head of the women’s group, says she wants to learn new skills in the city so that she can bring them back to help her people in the village.
Background Information:
The people who live in the village of Sivincani are Aymaran Indians who have lived in South America for thousands of years - pre-dating the Incas. However, their way of life is under threat. People are dying through malnutrition and acute diarrhoea.
The NGO Quaker Bolivia Link has been working with villages like Sivincani for a number of years to support the Bolivian people as they tackle such problems. They are particularly careful not to impose their own solutions to these problems but to work with the indigenous population, helping them to improve life for themselves.
QBL has already worked on several projects that help villages improve people's health by introducing fresh and clean water supplies. They work with Bolivian engineers to dig wells, fitted with easy-to-use pumps. Several families share these pumps instead of walking long distances to contaminated ponds. In addition they have worked with local people to build greenhouses from the traditional Adobe mud bricks, and fitted with polythene roofs. Up in the Andes - 4,000 metres above sea level - it can be hot in the day, but it freezes 200 nights a year. It makes it hard to grow many vegetables without these greenhouses. And this lack of variety in the diet causes health problems.
The people of Sivincani heard about other villages that had benefited from wells, water pumps and greenhouses and decided that a similar project would improve life for them too. They worked with a local organisation called Pradera to plan their project, working out where to place the pumps and greenhouses. Quaker Bolivia Link provided extra help and resources to carry out the work with the £10,000 from World of Difference.
Some of the money has also paid for training in cultivation and nutrition. Florentina, head of the women's group in the village, has been trained in these techniques, and has been working with other women so that they can make the most of the new vegetables they can now grow.
Florentina's sister Celia highlights another threat facing Sivincani, though. Celia is young, she and her friends travel around - they hitch rides on the buses that pass by on the highway several kilometres from the village. They have seen the bustle and bright lights of La Paz which is at the heart of much of Bolivian politics, commerce and culture. Compared with Sivincani, La Paz is exciting and perhaps offers new opportunities. So Celia and her friends are keen to move there when they are old enough.
This is a problem if villages like Sivincani are to survive. It's also often a problem for the people who make the move from countryside to city. Jobs there are often temporary, accommodation is too expensive, and there aren't the social support networks that exist in the countryside.
Many people end up living in El Alto, on the outskirts of La Paz. It's a place that has grown up without any planning, and without some of the amenities of the main city. It's been growing at a more rapid rate than La Paz itself.
The Gregorias Textile Co-operative is another QBL initiative. The co-op was set up by a group of women who had struggled to make a living on their own in El Alto. But by working together they can help out with food, childcare and, more importantly, they can pool their resources to buy equipment and help each other out.
The issue of rural-urban migration isn't clear-cut. It's a problem if villages like Sivincani are to survive. But there are some people in Bolivia who argue that it is easier to improve healthcare, education and sanitation by providing these services in urban areas. Trying to take them out to remote rural areas just isn't cost-effective.
Florentina, head of the women's group in Sivincani, wants life in the village to continue. She's had an education in the village itself - education is compulsory in Bolivia. She's seen the city, but prefers rural life. She would like to get more training so that she can help improve life in Sivincani. Florentina exemplifies how important it is to work with the indigenous population, helping them to find solutions to their problems.
Activities:
Discussion points
Village or city life?
Ask students to find two villages in different parts of the world where their way of life is under threat due to urban migration. You might ask them to choose one example in Europe and one example in the developing world. Invite them to compare the two examples - are the reasons for urban migration similar? Ask them to identify the good and bad points about such migration. Is there anything that can or should be done to tackle the issue?
Improving access to water
Invite students to look into the issue of access to clean drinking water. They should develop a map to show where people don't have access. What do they notice about the patterns emerging on the map? Water is essential to life, yet more than a billion people don't have access to clean water. Ask students to find out what priority the British government and other governments around the world give to this issue. You could take this activity further by exploring the idea of lobbying the government - if students wanted the government to give this issue more of a priority how would they make contact, what information would they supply, how would they publicise their cause, and should they use direct action?
Co-operative working
The programme featured an example of a women's co-operative in Bolivia. Britain too has a strong co-operative movement. Ask students to find an example of a British co-operative, looking at why it was set up and how it is run.
Links:
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Quaker Bolivia Link
Quaker Bolivia Link - Gregorias Textile Cooperative
Lonely Planet: Bolivia
Credits:
Gambia
Director: Rosa Rogers
Producer: Karen Gilchrist
Camera: Zac Nicholson
Sound: Steve Anderson
Editor: Conal Percy
Additional Music: Da Fugitivz and Kairo Sounds of the Gambia
Cambodia
Director: Rupert Miles
Producer: Hilary Durman, Nancy Platt
Camera: Alan Duxbury
Sound: Andy Morton
Editor: Glenn Rainton
Bolivia
Director: Adrian Cooper
Producer: Karen Gilchrist
Camera: Anson Hartford
Sound: Rashad Omar
Editor: Conal Percy
Additional Editing: Tamara Maclachlan Series Music: Nick Harvey
Production Secretary: Sue Lampey
Executive Producer: Hilary Durman