Nothing worth doing is straightforward

Now I have settled in to life living in La Paz, I thought I would share just a part of what I am really doing here.

There are sixteen British volunteers here in La Paz with the ICS scheme and we have been divided into three groups, each working with different local partner charities: Up Close Bolivia, Child Fund and my partner, Aldeas Infantiles SOS.

Within the Aldeas groups there are four sub projects which we are working to progress in the three short months we are here, following on the work that the previous cohort started. All the projects involve working in some way with some of the Aldeas Children’s centres in La Paz. These are day centres for children between the ages of 0-6 from disadvantaged backgrounds, where they can be cared for during the day whilst their parents are at work as well as properly fed, watered and nurtured.

The first sub project is Strengthening Families, which deals with issues such as father participation in children’s lives and sex education for young people and adults, as well as looking at the factors that are important for early childhood development.

The second is Entrepreneurship, a project which is working towards setting up urban gardens in certain centres, with the aim to provide better nutritional support for the children as well as a potential source of income for the centre and wider community.

The third, which I am partially involved in, is ‘Ludoteca’ or ‘Learning through play’ which is a project aimed at creating a better environment in which the children can learn, providing more and better resources that serve both play and cultural and education purposes.

The fourth, which is the project I am working on most of the time, is TICS. This project is in the early stages but its aim is to provide the resources and training necessary to set up telecentres or ‘computer rooms’ in the Aldeas children’s centres for the use of the children and possibly the wider community and incorporate ICT into the curriculum. ICT technology is widely seen as an important tool of development and can offer benefits such as higher levels of engagement in children, reducing the pressures of teacher shortages, employment opportunities for young people and adults and reduced costs in many areas of society. 

The work I am doing involves a lot of research as the project is in its very early stages and therefore research is still very much a key component. I am looking carefully at other similar projects from Bolivia and Latin America, analysing the successes and failures of these projects in order to put together information on ‘best practice’ for TICS telecentres. I am also looking for potential funding sources for the project (any suggestions would be much appreciated!).

I’ve certainly learned some lessons about development already. 

1. Development moves slowly. There are more barriers to everything and more politics involved than I could have imagined and patience is most definitely a requirement not a virtue in this world. 

2. It is important to work out whether or not a project is really needed in the particular community in order to create positive results. There is a tendency for any charity offered to be given the green light even if it is not the right project for that community. 

3. Keep the bigger picture in mind. If you lose sight of that then frustration may get the better of you. 

4. Development can have a positive impact on people’s lives and even completely transform some. 

5. Nothing worth doing is straightforward.