Friends of Alalay (Santa Cruz)

As a change, this week we thought it would be interesting to introduce you to one of the key staff members at Alalay in Santa Cruz: house mother Maria. The houseparents do a truly fantastic job being the people working with the children “on the ground”: caring for them day-to-day, giving them a listening ear, making sure the children do their homework and housework, and showing each child just how much they are loved. Pretty much the same as any parent!

Maria is one of the oldest houseparents in Alalay but is extremely dedicated to her job. She works at the boys’ welcome house, where she looks after 23 boys (both those straight off the streets, and the oldest boys who are preparing to become independent). Maria also has eight grown up children of her own. She began working at Alalay in 2007, initially working in the kitchen of the welcome house where she enjoyed preparing delicious food for the children and also got to know many of the personalities. Since this time, she has worked her way up and since early 2012 has been in the role of house mother, where she is a caring and positive role model to the kids, with just the right mix of authority!

In Maria’s own words:  “I am really happy in this job – I love working with the boys in the welcome house and being a part of such a great project”.

At Friends of Alalay we have decided to support Maria and three other houseparents to carry on doing this great work with the children, and will be funding their salaries over the next year. Do keep checking the website as we hope to add more stories of Alalay staff and children over the next few weeks…

Everyone is warmly invited to an “all age” party in the garden of St Matthew’s Church, Clare Road, Kingsdown on Saturday 8th June from 1pm to 5pm.

It will be an afternoon of fun with food and drink, music, games, bouncy castle, “whack the rat”, arts and crafts for all, nearly new sale, the great egg-drop competition and much much more! Entry is free but there is a small charge for some activities.

Friends of Alalay will have a stall offering a variety of Bolivian-themed activities. Colour in a llama picture to take home, find out more about Bolivia and Alalay’s work and even try out traditional Latin American games…

We look forward to seeing you there! More information and directions available HERE.

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Either click on the “newsletters” tab at the top of each page, or simply
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We had a brilliant day at Redland May Fair on Bank Holiday Monday – the weather was perfect and we were able to talk to lots of interesting people about the street children and Alalay’s work: handing out lots of leaflets and selling a huge amount of as-new items to raise money for the Bolivian street children. We even met a lady from La Paz in Bolivia!

Huge thanks to all of our wonderful helpers – we couldn’t have done it without you!
We hope to see you all at another event soon.

Last week I attended a fantastic and quite unique event: Celebrating “Latin America in Bristol”, organised by Dr. Rupert Medd and others (from the University of Bristol’s “Dept of Hispanic, Portuguese & Latin American Studies”). It was a great opportunity for all people from Latin America who live in and around Bristol to get together for a social event, and also gather knowledge about this vibrant (and growing) sector of Bristol society.

On a personal level, it was quite wonderful to realise that there are so many “latinos” living in my city – it was an excellent way of meeting people with similar interests and a passion for Latin America! I was able to network a great deal and get some great new contacts for my charity:  meeting Colombians studying at Bristol University, an Argentine doll maker, a tango teacher and a Mexican translator, amongst many others. It also gave me the opportunity to speak with Paul Fuente, an Ecuadorian who has been raising money for children’s development projects around the World for many years, and now wants to co-ordinate projects for poor children in his own country. It was really interesting for me to share experiences of previous fundraising events, projects and ideas, and I hope that we may be able to use mutual contacts to organise a joint event at some point soon!

Thank you to all the organisers for a fantastic event!

– excerpt taken from a statement which will soon be published on the organiser’s website.

I have just been sent a recently filmed mini documentary (put together by a group of Bolivian media students) about Alalay in Santa Cruz. It also shows many of the projects supported by Friends of Alalay (quail and chicken farms, bakery, textile workshop). Currently the film is in Spanish (or Dutch!) but we are working on English subtitles – hopefully available soon.

Please do watch it below and let us know your thoughts.
(press play on the link below to watch a small version or double click for a larger screen)

Please do come along to Redland May Fair on Monday 6th May (1pm onwards) and support Friends of Alalay. We will have a stall selling lots of as-new items and other goodies, as well as information about Alalay and current projects in Bolivia. There will be lots of free events during the day – 120+ stalls, entertainment, food and plenty more, so do come along!

Please get in touch with us if you might be able to help on our stall at any point during the day… Enthusiasm and a smile are the only requirements!

[original photo here]

On the 27th April, Jonathan Goldsmith set off from Lands End to travel the 940 miles to John o’Groats by bike, aiming to do the trip in just 6 days (!) to raise money for Friends of Alalay. Unfortunately, we have just heard that he has had to abandon his ride on day 3, having sustained a knee injury whilst getting out of the way of a careless driver somewhere in Cheshire. He is “terribly disappointed but vows to complete the rest of the journey, from Alderley Edge to John o’Groats, in the future”.

Please do still sponsor Jonathan here and find out more about his reasons for supporting Alalay below (taken from The LATA Foundation website)…

“Jonathan  (Audley Latin America) is raising funds to help us support street children in Bolivia. He set off from Lands End on 27 April, endeavouring to cycle 940 miles in just 6 days.

Two years ago Jonathan and his brother Paddy cycled the journey in 12 days.  They camped all the way in what Jonathan describes as one of the most amazing fortnights of his life. When they reached the finishing point they were feeling pretty pleased with themselves until two other guys turned up saying they had done it in 6 days. From that day on Jonathan vowed that he would match it.

Jonathan and his wife travelled through Bolivia some years ago and were both awestruck by its beauty and its people. Working for Audley Latin America he has been following the work of the LATA Foundation with interest and with two children of his own (Ben and Phoebe) he was keen to support a project involving children.”

There was a great number of people at the recent charity rugby match held on Easter Saturday to celebrate Thornbury Rugby Club’s 50th anniversary. As well as the rugby (Thornbury FC won!) there was a delicious hog roast, drinks, cakes, a raffle (which included hotel breaks, gym passes and a fantastic Alalay/Thornbury FC cake!) and much fun to be had.

A big thanks to ex-Alalay volunteer George Maggs and the rest of Thornbury Rugby Club for their hard work organising the event.  Read more about the event here

A great turn out and amount of money raised. See below for some photos – including the brilliant Alalay cake and Annie being lifted up by the team!

I have recently been updating the website and hope that it will now be even easier to navigate. Amongst many other things, here are a few “quick links” to some interesting parts:

• Our supported projects of 2013 thus far
• Events happening this year
• Previously financed Friends of Alalay projects and organised fundraising events
  (both listed by year – just click on the tabs)
• Newsletters (from Summer 2012 until now)

Please do not hesitate to contact us if anything is not clear or you would like any more information about Alalay and its work.