Friends of Alalay (Santa Cruz)

We are thrilled to announce that the LATA Foundation has financed a second Friends of Alalay project – creating a 3000-strong quail farm at Alalay. The quails will provide an additional source of nutrition for the street children and eggs will also be sold to local outlets creating a sustainable income. Quail eggs are a particular delicacy in Bolivia and command a good price. Find out more about the LATA Foundation and the project HERE.

In 2010, the LATA Foundation provided all the equipment for our on-site medical centre. This helps to monitor child growth and development, provide inoculations and deal with immediate first aid. It is also used by children and adults who form part of Alalay’s prevention programme. You can find out much more about the prevention programme at the bottom of the ‘Alalay’ page and read more current news about our many supported projects in our newsletters.

Have a look at the quail project press releases here:

• Travel News Gazette
• Incentive Travel
  Travel Daily News

It is always good to start the new year with positive news, and I was so pleased to recently be invited to see the beautiful plate awarded to the Bristol branch of the English Speaking Union (ESU), to commemorate their winning of the “Valerie Mitchell award for International Achievement”, in honour of their ongoing support for Friends of Alalay.

As previously mentioned, their submission was based on their support over the last 4 years, culminating in the “Casa de Bristol” where future volunteers and school parties can stay. In addition, the building contains a fully-equipped medical centre which means that Alalay children can receive on-site treatment and preventative care. The medical facilities are also used by children and their families who are part of Alalay’s prevention programme.

Congratulations once again to the ESU Bristol branch! I remain extremely grateful to everyone involved in the group for all of their hard work for Friends of Alalay.

On behalf of all of the children and staff at Alalay, we would like to wish all of our supporters and friends a very Happy New Year.

May 2013 bring peace and happiness to you all, your family and friends.

We are very sorry to announce that due to extremely high demand ALL of the Alalay Christmas cards have sold out for this year.

However, next year another thousand, limited-edition cards individually hand-painted by the street children will arrive – get your orders in early!

We also have a few beautiful, hand-painted, friendship, valentines and wedding cards left – just get in touch if you would like to buy some. A bargain at just £1.50 each.

We have just been sent some photos of the Alalay children hard at work in their English lessons, so I thought I would share them with our supporters. The following photo shows some of the youngest boys at the aldea colouring the letters of the alphabet.

These letters have been stuck up on their classroom wall and the children take great pride in showing off their art work. As can be seen from the photo, the children take their colouring in very seriously!

We have received very positive reports regarding the English course. The children love the lessons and the teacher is brilliant at making them as interactive and fun as possible. The children do lots of sticking, cutting, artwork, singing, talking, watching English cartoons and playing games – the youngest children even have a new Sesame Street Learning English CD!

Several helpers, including the Jones’ family, helped to make the Alalay stall a great success at the annual Doynton Christmas market last Saturday (10th November). Thanks very much to all involved for their help, and all those who came to the Friends of Alalay stall.

Please do check the “upcoming events” page to find out about many more events soon!

Congratulations to the Bristol branch of the English Speaking Union (ESU), who have just informed me that they have been awarded the “Valerie Mitchell award for International Achievement” at the recent ESU Conference at Dartmouth House, due to their ongoing support for Friends of Alalay.

Their submission was based on the support they have given my work with street children in Bolivia over the last 4 years, culminating in the “Casa de Bristol” where future volunteers and school parties can stay. In addition, the building contains a fully-equipped medical centre which means that Alalay children can receive on-site treatment and preventative care. The medical facilities are also used by children and their families who are part of Alalay’s prevention programme.

The ESU have raised a brilliant amount for various projects and invited me to speak at their Thanksgiving Dinner last year. I am thrilled for the achievement of the ESU Bristol branch and remain extremely grateful to everyone involved in the group for all of their hard work for Friends of Alalay.

Please do come along and support Friends of Alalay this weekend.

We will be running a stall at Doynton Village Hall this coming Saturday (10th November) from 10.30am to 12.30 pm. There will be goodies galore – with Bolivian gifts, craft items and plenty of potential Christmas presents to buy! We will also have a selection of beautiful hand-painted Alalay Christmas cards for sale.

This has been a busy weekend for Friends of Alalay! On Friday, Alalay representative Graham Syrett gave a presentation to the Arnold House assembly at Tonbridge Grammar School. The students of Arnold House are currently in the process of fundraising for the Bolivian street children and were very interested in finding out more about Alalay’s great work.

On Sunday, Graham then moved on to Clementswood Baptist Church, Ilford, where he spoke at both the Harvest Thanksgiving Supper and Sunday morning harvest service about Bolivia and the street children. Through his talks, he highlighted the importance of sharing what we have with others throughout the World – a very apt message at Harvest-time.

Many thanks to all involved in the organising of these talks – it is brilliant to be able to spread the word about Alalay and its work.

Once again, a HUGE thanks to Olly, Hannah, Jack and the rest of the wonderful ‘Fund for Alalay’ team with their continued fundraising efforts… To add to the previous infamous ‘purple man’ and leg-waxing ventures, this week they organised…

“The Great Cotham/Charnwood Bake Off!” 

In their own words, the idea was: “Anyone who wants to enter can bring along cupcakes, big cakes or biscuits (or anything else baked) and sell it to the crowd. Those who buy the cake will be asked to rate the cake they buy between 1 and 10 (10 being cake-gasmically good). Whoever sells the most cake and gets the highest ratings at the end of the day will win 5% of the money raised, as  well as the honour of being dubbed cake-queen or king of Charnwood”.

All monies raised (other than that lucky winner’s prize) went straight to Friends of Alalay, and they managed to collect a fantastic event to add to their past efforts…
Thanks to all the team for yet another innovative idea, and also to all those who made, bought (and tested) the cakes!