Videos made by Supreme Master TV

Last year Supreme Master TV, a nonprofit channel airing constructive news and programs that foster peace and promote healthy, green living, aired two videos showcasing Mano a Mano's programs as part of its "Good People, Good Works" feature. Part one highlighted our health and education programs:

Part two focused on our road and water projects:

Thanks Supreme Master TV for making these videos!

Pictures of Dedication of our 119th Clinic in Santa Rosa, Bolivia

With every clinic that Mano a Mano builds, the community always celebrates its completion with a dedication ceremony. It is a huge event, and nearly everyone attends. Local leaders and politicians make speeches giving thanks, the children perform dances and play music, and often donors who contributed to the project in the US travel to Bolivia to attend as well.

Before the dedication takes place, volunteers make the final preparations to get the clinic ready for use - cleaning floors, making beds, and moving in the furniture, supplies, and equipment needed.

More pictures of this dedication are available here.

Happy Birthday to a Very Special Volunteer!

On July 4, 2011, we celebrate Gloria MacRae's 85^th birthday. Gloria is one of Mano a Mano's most dedicated volunteers and has been with us since the beginning; she made a $25 donation to Mano a Mano during our first year in 1994 and then, she says, it took over her life. Over the years Gloria has recruited many volunteers and donors, always carries a Mano a Mano brochure in her purse, talks with everyone she knows about our work, requests donations of medical surplus, and the list goes on. 

We even have her to thank for helping get our clinic program off the ground. When we celebrated Gloria’s 70^th birthday in 1996, we kept secret that more than 100 of her friends were raising funds to build the first Mano a Mano clinic in her name, “Clinica Gloria”. Imagine her surprise when we presented the gift: enough seed funding to build two clinics, Clinica Gloria I and Clinica Gloria II. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

For her 75th birthday we had a new challenge. Northwest Airlines had donated 8,000 crystal glasses to Mano a Mano, which we planned to sell as a fundraiser. Gloria was our best salesperson; she even began carrying glasses in her purse to sell for $2 each to everyone she knew, and we raised over $16,000!

Gloria was born in Empress, Alberta, Canada on July 4, 1926. She emigrated to the U.S. to attend the University of Texas, became a medical technologist, and worked for a pharmaceutical company until age 35. Beginning to feel restless in her lab-focused job, she decided to seek another career and chose social work through the University of Minnesota’s masters program. She worked as social worker at Gillette Hospital, Ramsey County, and Anoka State Hospital until she retired. Not one to stop at that point, she went on to teach English to spouses of foreign students, became the volunteer social worker for Macalester Plymouth United Church, served on the review board for the St. Peter Security Hospital, and adopted Mano a Mano. 

For every birthday since 1996, it's become a tradition for Gloria to encourage friends to make a donation to Mano a Mano in her honor. Gloria exemplifies the spirit of our organization, and we thank her for her tremendous support; Happy 85th Birthday Gloria!

Clinic Program Update

As part of our clinic program, Mano a Mano Bolivia keeps extremely detailed statistics for everything they do, from number of patient visits to vaccinations to outcomes in each of our 120 clinics in operation. To give you an idea of what our clinics do, here are some of the numbers for the first 3 months of 2011 (119 clinics reporting):

• 179,342 patient visits overall. The focus of our clinics is primary care, and particularly maternal & child health, and that is reflected in our visits.
• 49,051 general medicine visits, including 24,504 exams for children under 5

Child and mother waiting to be seen in the La Joya clinic in the department of Chuquisaca

Mano a Mano Dedicates its 120th Clinic in Chunavi, Bolivia

Paul Cormier, a mountain guide from New Hampshire, and his team just returned back to the US from their annual climbing expedition in Bolivia. Paul's trip was more than mountain climbing; two years ago, during one of his climbing trips in Bolivia, Paul heard about Mano a Mano's work and asked how he could help. Paul and his fellow travelers wanted to give something back to the community of Chunavi, where they had set up base camp during their climbing expeditions. Chunavi is a small village more than 13,000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains, located a few hours' drive from La Paz. Last year they began the Chunavi Fund, which was dedicated to raising enough money in the US to build a community health clinic in Chunavi. The clinic project would be built using our collaborative approach involving Mano a Mano, the community of Chunavi, the Municipal Government, and the Bolivian Health Ministry.

The Chunavi Fund was very successful, and now, one year later the project is done! The clinic is fully equipped with medical supplies and equipment, and has a full-time RN; soon a physician will also be hired by the local municipality. The entire community came out for the dedication ceremony last week to celebrate its completion, and Paul Cormier and his group traveled to Bolivia to attend the dedication. This is Mano a Mano's 120th clinic in Bolivia. The local community and municipality were heavily involved throughout the process, volunteering nearly 4,000 hours during construction. Thanks to everyone who made this project happen!

Chunavi Clinic

Mano a Mano is currently constructing a clinic in Chunavi, a small community north of La Paz, nestled more than 13,000 above sea level in some of the tallest mountains in South America.

Site for the clinic; Andes mountains in the background

As with all of our projects, the community signs an agreement with Mano a Mano detailing everyone's roles and responsibilities. The model we have used has resulted in 119 completed health clinics throughout Bolivia, with 108 financially independent of Mano a Mano.

Mano a Mano Bolivia's Executive Director Jose Velasquez meeting with community leaders

In addition to Mano a Mano's master builders, two master builders from the community were hired and will work alongside our staff and local volunteers. A typical clinic project takes around 2-3 months to complete

The Mano a Mano Model

One of the main things that differentiates Mano a Mano is the model that we use. Here we'll briefly walk through the entire process for building a rural health clinic, although the model is very similar for all of our projects.

First, the community in Bolivia approaches us to request a project. This is a huge point; the local community is the driver of the process, Mano a Mano does not pick locations or projects itself. The community goes to our office in Cochabamba to request whatever project they have decided is most important, from a clinic to a school to community bathrooms, and are put on the waiting list until funds are available. When there is funding, Mano a Mano meets with the community and local leaders to sign an agreement detailing everyone's responsibilities: