Friends of Alalay (Santa Cruz)

Many many thanks to all those who organised and attended our recent fundraising events – the “Night at the Opera” concert (organised by the Rotary Club) and the Doynton tea party and walk (organised by the Jones and Robinson families). Both were great successes with a large turn-out and lots of money raised for Alalay.

Here you can see the Welsh National Opera singers who so kindly performed at the Opera event. Photos of the Doynton event coming soon!

Please do support Cara and James as they participate in the Bristol Triathlon 2014 on Sunday (on Cara’s birthday!) Click here to sponsor them now. In their own words, they will be:

“…swimming 750m in the Cumberland basin, cycling 20k along the Portway and running 5k along the tow path…please support our pain by sponsoring the work of this great charity!”

Many thanks to the LATA Foundation for inviting me to their recent 2nd annual Latin American Charities Forum. I gave a short presentation about my work in Bolivia, and then there was opportunity to share thoughts and ideas with representatives from a wide variety of charitable organisations working in Latin America. A fantastic and thought-provoking event!

Find out more about the Forum and the other charities in attendance here.

In just under a month (5th July), the Rotary Club of Bristol is kindly organising A Night at the Opera to raise money for our work – “a fantastic event combining music from Opera, Operettas and Musicals for an evening of entertainment”.

Featuring Megan Llewellyn-Dorke (Soprano), Sarah Pope (Mezzo-Soprano), Simon Curtis (Tenor) and George Newton-Fitzgerald (Bass) all of the Welsh National Opera.

The event will be held at 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm) at St Mary Magdalene Church, Mariners Drive, Stoke Bishop, Bristol and costs just £15. Tickets can be purchased at the venue, by ringing 01179688569 or directly from Friends of Alalay. Please do invite your friends and come along!

Please do have a look at our latest newsletter to find out the latest news both here in the UK and in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia – just click the image on the right.

Read previously published newsletters (Spring 2012 onwards) by clicking HERE. Or, please contact us if you would like to receive your own copy once a quarter. We never reveal email addresses or ask for money!

Last week the Alalay children participated in music workshops run by a Norwegian group, as part of an International Baroque Music Festival which is currently touring around Bolivia. The festival involves 57 groups from 23 countries, including the UK, Canada, Mexico and Belgium!

The children watched a performance by the group, before being allowed to have a go on a variety of instruments. A great time was had by all – young and old!

Redland May Fair was a great success – with many items sold and lots of money raised for Alalay. A huge thanks to my fantastic team of helpers and all those who came and visited our stall during the day, purchased items or asked about out work.

I recently re-watched a fantastic film, “Maria Full of Grace” (2004) which tells of a 17-year old Colombian girl who, with a lack of income and future prospects, is persuaded to work as a drugs mule, swallowing heroin pellets to smuggle to the US. It really made me think just how relatively easily someone who is young, desperate, poor and/or vulnerable can be persuaded to undertake such dangerous and terrifying work.

Children out on the streets or living in high-risk situations are clearly very vulnerable to many pressures and may be coerced into drug smuggling, sexual exploitation, slavery, prostitution and international human trafficking.

Please do read more about the film or see the trailer. Or find out more about the reality in Bolivia of children being used as drug mules and/or trafficked to work in the sex trade or as slaves.

The film’s tagline states that it is “based on 1,000 true stories”. It is so vital that children are protected within Alalay rather than becoming just another hopeless story.

Whilst in Bolivia last year, I was fortunate enough to see one of our Alalay cows give birth, aided by Isidro, our fantastic husbandry expert. Isidro and his family live in a small house next to Alalay’s aldea and he and his wife look after the quails, chickens, cows and any other animals (!), as well as helping with the vegetables and general maintenance on site.

We are financially supporting Isidro this year – ensuring that the children continue to get fresh milk (rather than the watered down version often for sale in the market!), home-grown vegetables and fresh eggs. As always, any extra produce is sold in the local markets to generate an additional income for Alalay. See more of this year’s projects here.

Friends of Alalay are running a stall next Monday (5th May) at the Redland May Day Fair at Redland Green, Bristol.

Please do come along to have a chat to us, find out more about our work with Bolivian street children, or to pick up a fantastic bargain! We have lots of as-new interesting items to purchase – everything must go!

Remember: every penny raised goes straight to help the street children to help themselves.