Friends of Alalay (Santa Cruz)

You may remember that earlier in the year, soul singer Joss Stone chose Alalay as her one charity to visit in Bolivia, and then the next day played a great sold-out concert at the Hard Rock Cafe. The Cafe then presented Alalay with a cheque, and we endeavoured to work together more in the future. Phase one of this collaboration has now happened – the Hard Rock team visited the Alalay aldea earlier this month to organise a big party for all of the kids who had had a birthday over the last few months. Everyone had a fantastic time – playing games, dancing, laughing and sharing salteñas (a typical Bolivian delicacy), cake and drinks, before leaving the party with their own party bag!

Many thanks to the Hard Rock Cafe for your initiative – we really look forward to working with you even more in the future!

Read more about Joss’ visit to Alalay and the cheque presentation HERE.

We were very pleased when Juliet and Kat asked to come and do a volunteering placement with us recently. Juliet (a doctor) and Kat (a dentist) carried out specific “mini projects” during their time at Alalay and managed to get a lot achieved in a short time-frame. Alongside work as general volunteers, Kat ran dental health check-ups for all of our children, and Juliet ran eye tests and a beginner’s first aid course.

Dental health is a huge issue amongst the Alalay kids – toothbrushes are hard to come by (and keep) on the streets, and sweets are plentiful, so many children come in with horrific rotten stumps instead of good milk teeth. Alalay therefore spends a a lot of money (and time!) taking children to the dentists. Kat spent time doing dental examinations with each child, enabling her to identify which children need further treatment, which we will help to fund. She also spoke with all our children about good dental hygiene, how to use a toothbrush and how to look after their teeth.

Juliet’s basic eye tests mean that we have been able to identify which children need to go to the opticians for further check-ups, and then we will be purchasing glasses for any who may need them.

And the beginner’s first aid course was a great opportunity to teach house parents and other staff how to deal with basic treatments and lifesaving techniques. Below you can see staff members proudly holding their first aid certificates.

Juliet and her first aid students

People often ask me what help ordinary Bolivians give to their street kids, and here is a great example. Tomorrow (Saturday 13 June) Banco Mercantil Santa Cruz (the largest bank in Bolivia) is organising a “Centamaraton” for the second year running. The Centamaraton is an event almost like Children in Need here in the UK, where people can donate Bolivian centavos to go directly towards specific organisations, including Alalay! The event will be live on PAT TV and the hope is to raise lots of money for education, health and sports projects which directly benefit our kids. There will also be a live auction, where people can bid on items such as a Real Madrid football shirt signed by all the team, or tickets to a Real Madrid game. It looks like it should be a great event!

As part of the build-up to the Centamaraton, Banco Mercantil Santa Cruz has made a promotional video about Alalay in Santa Cruz. Although it’s in Spanish, it’s well worth a watch as it shows lots of our supported projects, including the bakery, carpentry workshop and textile unit in action! Please just click on the photo above or HERE to watch it. 

We are thrilled to announce the publication of the photos and short promo film shot and edited by the very talented people at Ben Ashmole Photography. They spent just two days with us in late April, but have somehow really managed to capture the essence of Alalay and its children in their work. Please do have a watch of the film (click below), and also see their beautiful photos by clicking HERE.

Do let us know what you think!

A couple of days ago I watched a fantastic TV programme, “Where am I sleeping tonight?” (BBC Three), which tells the stories of homeless youngsters in Britain. Interestingly it was the first documentary made by director Martin Reed, who himself had been living on the streets aged just 16. For me, the programme provided a real insight into the many challenges faced by this population here in the UK and I would thoroughly recommend it.

Throughout the programme I found myself constantly reminded of the similarities between these British young people and the street kids in Bolivia: the hours walking the streets trying to find somewhere safe to sleep, the hunger, the hidden existence, the “community” aspect of life on the streets, the desperation and the pressure of drugs…

Two things said by the British youngsters that really struck me were:

“I feel safer on the streets than I do behind closed doors”

“We are like rats, you don’t realise it but you are never more than a few feet away from a homeless person, it’s just that we are so well hidden”

They could so easily have been said by a Bolivian child.

Homeless people the World over are a huge challenge for today’s society. I guess the key difference is that here in the UK there are systems in place – organisations like The Princes Trust which offer the possibility of getting back into college courses, places like The Wild Goose cafe and various soup runs for food, and a Government benefits system. As the programme shows these systems don’t always work how they should, but at least they exist.

The challenge in Bolivia is the numbers of young people turning to the streets, the society being so much poorer as a whole, and the lack of a Government welfare system to help these kids – leaving them to survive alone. However, even in Bolivia, places like Alalay do offer hope for these young people and the chance to change their lives. Our Alalay alumni: previously homeless children who are now in University, living in their own flats and bringing up their own families. These kids can achieve so much if just given the chance.

Please do take the time to watch the BBC Three documentary by clicking HERE.

Two of our “Alalay alumni” (image credit: Ben Ashmole Photography)

We are very pleased that we can now show some of the official shots from Joss Stone’s visit to Alalay earlier this year. It was such an incredibly special day – with Joss and her team joining in street work, meeting our kids, dancing and even being presented with an early birthday cake! Read more about the visit HERE and click HERE to see the official photos and write-up about Alalay and Annie’s involvement.

In Team Joss’ own words:

“So before we show you our pics from Mexico we have to catch up on the rest of the S.America leg of the tour…

One thing we are learning during this world tour is just how small our planet really is. That was confirmed during the research for a charity in Bolivia. Hannah (our lovely lady in England who finds all of the charity and collaborations in each country we visit) was looking for a charity in Bolivia and came across a small charity called Friends of Alalay. After getting in touch with them she soon discovered that Annie, the charities founder, lived just a 10 minute walk away from Hannah’s house in England. They met for a coffee and the visit was organised face to face. Small world ay?

I am very pleased to share our latest newsletter with supporters – it is packed full of project news, stories, achievements and more. Please just click on the newsletter below to access a .pdf version of the two-page document that you can read in its entirety. You can always find previous newsletters to download HERE. 

As I’ve previously mentioned, during my final couple of days in Santa Cruz we were visited by Ben and Laura, the very talented people behind Ashmole Photography. In their two days staying with us they really managed to capture the essence behind Alalay’s work, and we are really looking forward to sharing some wonderful images (and a promo film!) with all our supporters.

But for the moment, we wanted to just quickly share one photo with you…

In Ben’s own words “Dinner time with a few of the 60 kids at the Alalay Santa Cruz NGO, Bolivia, that at one point were living on the streets in horrific conditions. They now live within the NGO as one giant family in good conditions, with people who love and care for them. I’ve never met a happier (and more mischievous) bunch of children 🙂 ”

See Ben’s original post HERE and much more of Ashmole Photography’s beautiful work HERE.

I’ve now been back in the UK for just over a week and I’m almost recovered from the lack of sleep and never-ending work that only a month back in Bolivia can bring! It’s also given me a bit of time to unpack and reflect on a wonderful, positive, busy and fundamentally productive time with the kids.

As it was more difficult than normal to update my website, I posted most of my news during the month on my new Facebook page, available by clicking HERE.  Please do have a look, “like” the page and find out more quick snapshots of news. The latest newsletter will be going out to supporters next week too – please see previous editions HERE or contact us to find out how to receive your own copy.

Below are a few images capturing the essence of our time back with the kids (hold your mouse over the thumbnail to get a quick explanation of the image), but to give you an overview it involved: legendary Joss Stone visiting Alalay (read more HERE), meetings about future/current projects and collaborations (with the local Government, Rotary Clubs, Hard Rock Cafe to name a few), catching up with many “Alalay ex-street kid alumni” (who I first knew back in 2006 and who are now in jobs, with their own flats and at university), doing street work to find out how the reality of life on the streets has changed, co-ordinating a visit of the very talented people from Ben Ashmole Photography (who will soon be giving us some beautiful images and footage from their stay)… oh and spending some time just playing with the kids! Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing more about each of these events in more detail, so do keep your eyes peeled!

After Joss Stone’s visit to Alalay last week (see more HERE), I was really pleased to be invited (along with other Alalay staff) to her concert as a special guest – this was her one concert in the whole of Bolivia! Joss played an amazing set, and I was thrilled to be invited backstage after the concert to be presented with a cheque from the Hard Rock Cafe Santa Cruz (where Joss had been performing). This cheque will go straight to the Alalay Foundation here in Santa Cruz to help buy much needed school materials and essential items for all of our children. Friends of Alalay always strives to support income-generating, maintenance or educational projects, so we are very pleased with this decision.

Many thanks to Joss Stone, her team, and to the Hard Rock Cafe. We will be having meetings with the Cafe next week, so watch this space for (hopefully) more exciting collaborations!