Friends of Alalay (Santa Cruz)

Today we had an extremely exciting visitor to Alalay… The legendary soul singer Joss Stone! After weeks of planning (and trying to keep the visit secret from the local press!) Joss came to see us along with some of her team, and it was so special to be able to share Alalay’s work with her.

She went out with our Alalay street worker to chat to kids still living on the streets and find out about their daily lives, and then came to visit our boys’ welcome house. The Alalay kids performed a traditional dance and afterwards we ate typical snacks together, danced, chatted and even had a surprise (very early) birthday cake for Joss!

Joss is currently in Santa Cruz as part of her Total World Tour, where she plays one concert in EVERY country in the World, does one musical collaboration and visits one charity… We are extremely honoured that she picked Alalay as her Bolivian charity!

Joss and team – you are amazing! Thank you so much for all of your support 🙂 Professional photos of the visit are on their way…

I got back to Bolivia early on Friday morning and it has been a busy time so far – including a brief visit to the boys’ welcome house to see our maintenance work there and meet with some of the oldest boys who we are supporting through their vocational training, and a lot of meetings!

On Saturday, I went to watch one of our inspirational young people fight in a boxing match. Wilber had a tough start in life, but came to Alalay as a youngster and spent his older teenage years with us. Two of his sisters were also supported by us. Now he lives independently from Alalay.

After the fight we spoke and I asked him about the future and his plans. He wants to go to University to study Nutrition but will also continue with his boxing training. He’s already travelled around South America for various fights, and hopes one day to box at the World Boxing Championships or Olympics. As we spoke, he said four words that impacted on me more than anything else: “I believe in myself”.

Yesterday evening I couldn’t help but watch a young boy of maybe 10 years of age, sat on the dirty street late at night, clutching a small plastic tub and desperately shaking it at strangers… A couple of people threw some coins for him, but most just walked past – for them he simply didn’t exist. This child clearly had no self-belief or worth and was ignored like a piece of rubbish on the ground. It struck me in sharp contrast to the inner strength and belief of Wilber, and absolutely validated for me my reasons for offering these children a second chance and the opportunity for a better future at Alalay.

I will be here in Bolivia for almost a month and it promises to be a very exciting time. I want to keep people even more up-to-date than usual with quick thoughts, photos and news from Alalay and I’ve therefore set up a Facebook page which people are very welcome to “like” and join for this month. Please find it by clicking HERE – do share it with your friends!

Finally, my big thanks to Air Europa, the LATA Foundation and Claire Betts for managing to sort out my flights so quickly!

Let’s give more children the opportunity to believe in themselves.

As we have just celebrated International Womens’ Day (8th March) we thought that there was no better time to share some photos of three truly inspirational Alalay women.

Firstly, Claudia Gonzales who founded Alalay as a 19-year old student and continues to run the whole organisation to this day. Without Claudia’s vision and passion for her work, many thousands of children would still be on the streets in Bolivia. Read more about Alalay and Claudia here.

Secondly, wonderful Maria – a housemother at Alalay who has provided constant care and love to these vulnerable children since 2007. Read more about Maria and her work here.

And finally, Guiselda* – who grew up at Alalay and has now completed her schooling and vocational training as a nurse (funded by Friends of Alalay). She is a real credit to Alalay and a true demonstration of just how much these children can achieve if given the chance. In this photo she is at her Nursing graduation last year (together with Patty, the girls’ welcome house coordinator) . Read more about her story and find out about our other supported students here.

These women are doing amazing jobs every single day, and we are very proud to work together with them.

*name has been changed to protect identity.

It has just been Carnival time in Latin America – a time of costumes, dancing, processions and (in Santa Cruz at least) throwing vast quantities of paint at each other! The Alalay kids also had their own mini carnival holiday. Since there was no school (or homework!) all of the children (from the aldea and welcome centres) went away on a big “family trip” – to cook together, swim, play, build sandcastles, eat a lot and generally have a fun time! A great time was had by all as can be seen in the photos below [just click to enlarge an image]..

Myself and Ambassador Calzadilla

I was very kindly invited to the Bolivian Embassy in London earlier this week for a series of meetings. I spoke at length with both Giovanna Lenny Vidal, and Roberto Calzadilla (Ambassador to the UK) during my visit, and it provided a fantastic opportunity for me to share Alalay’s work and my involvement with them, alongside discussing current projects and plans.

My many thanks to the Embassy for the warm welcome that I received, and I look forward to more collaborations in the future.

Myself with Robert Capurro, CEO of Canning House and Baroness Hooper, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary British-Latin America Group

Last week I was very pleased to once again be invited to the annual House of Lords Reception held by the Latin America Travel Association (LATA), the LATA Foundation and the All Party Parliamentary British-Latin America Group. The event brought together a wide range of Ambassadors from Latin America and many of the Anglo-Latin America societies, alongside restaurants, travel companies, the travel press and NGOs working in the region.

As always, it was a great opportunity for me to speak about my work in Bolivia with a wide range of interested people and share ideas of challenges and future projects. My thanks to all involved in organising such a successful evening.

A fundamental part of Alalay’s work revolves around encouraging the children whom they support to be self-sufficient : (adjective) 1. needing no outside help in satisfying one’s basic needs […] 2. emotionally and intellectually independent.

From a young age the kids are taught to be kind and considerate to others, but also gently encouraged to learn to look after themselves – washing their own clothes, looking after their own belongings, tidying their bedrooms, and keeping on top of school work. Skills that are not learnt on the streets.

As an organisation, Alalay tries really hard to provide a positive example to the kids and be self-sufficient too, thus why many of Friends of Alalay’s supported projects often focus on this area. Over the past twelve months, amongst many other projects, we have helped to finance the work of a farmworker and on-site carpenter. The carpenter is able to teach the children basic carpentry skills, carry out all on-site repairs and woodwork, and then design and make a great variety of items to order. These are sold and invested back into Alalay to improve the future prospects of our children.

And we are supporting a further eight boys through vocational training courses (soon to be joined by five of our oldest girls) – studying to be chefs, nurses, beauticians, mechanics and hairdressers. With Alalay’s help these children will also have a self-sufficient future – being financially, emotionally and intellectually independent, and valuable members of society.

A couple of months ago we mentioned the exciting new campaign started by Samsung Bolivia – “Ayudar no cuesta nada” (helping doesn’t cost anything) to help Alalay in its work with Bolivian street children. Read more about it HERE. We are very pleased to announce that they have just reached 400,000 “likes” and thus well over £38,000 for the Alalay kids!..

For each new “like”, they donate 1 boliviano (approximately 9 pence) to the Alalay Foundation. If you have a spare moment, please do “like” their Facebook page, available by clicking here: https://www.facebook.com/SamsungBoliviaOficial. Many thanks to those who have already done so, all over the World. Please share and encourage friends to do the same!

A very happy new year to all of our supporters from the Alalay children and staff. We are currently busy discussing new project ideas with Alalay and will update you as soon as we have any news regarding the projects that we will be supporting throughout this year.

In the meantime, here are some photos of some of the Alalay children enjoying Christmas together… This involved a very large Christmas dinner, sacks of presents and even sparklers! (Just click on a photo to see an enlarged image).

Also, some of the Alalay children are featured in a new advertising video for “Imagen Real” (a photo and video shop in Santa Cruz). Throughout December the shop is running a promotion, where 100% of their profits on certain packages goes directly to Alalay. A fantastic local fundraising effort! Watch the short video HERE (and try to spot some of our children!)

We (and all of the Alalay children) would like to wish all of our wonderful Friends of Alalay supporters a very Merry Christmas. Thank you so much for all of your encouragement and practical support for our work during 2014.

We hope that 2015 brings you happiness, peace and joy.