Location: Arampampa & Asanquiri, Potosí Setting: Rural Established: 2005 Staff: 16

 

Subject Areas

Youth and Education: Communication, Social Leadership, Cognitive Learning, Complimentary Learning, Counseling, Personal and Professional Development, Teaching, Technical Agricultural Training

Environment: Water Pollution, Water Systems Management, Sanitation, Energy, Resources, Conservation, Environmental Health, Risk Management, Environmental Education, Environmental Planning, Organic/Sustainable Agriculture

Community Development: Community Empowerment, Building Social Capital, Social Work, Social Responsibility, Power Production, Famine and Food Security, Infrastructure Development, Education

Human Rights: Poverty, Social Justice, Land Rights, Legal Issues, Equality, Environmental Law, Community Action

 

Organization Objectives

Save the Children aims to support the empowerment of rural communities that have the skills and abilities needed to improve their lives and reduce rural-to-urban migration. It offers extremely poor, rural youth with the opportunity to obtain a quality education in technical agricultural skills. Its goals are to:

• Maintain an alternative education center in the highly isolated village of Asanquiri, where rural youth can participate in a two-year technical agriculture training program, from which they will graduate as licensed agronomists
• Provide technical training workshops and seminars for youth in relevant agriculture and livestock subjects, a training formation course that results in a certification or degree in agriculture and livestock production
• Implement workshops and classes focusing on social themes, general production methodologies, and basic skills such as municipality management, basic accounting, administration, and group and project management
• Include general personal development subjects such as rural sociology, the state and society, culture, leadership, gender equality, self-esteem, environmentalism, health, and HIV/AIDS prevention
• Support and stimulate agriculture/livestock and alternative production projects (carpentry, artesanías, and community services) throughout the municipality’s 36 communities
• Provide small financing (loans or grants) for community production projects
• Enhance the Academic Agriculture and Livestock Program through increased enrollment and diversification of curriculum
• Develop production project initiatives

 

Program Information

 

1. Agriculture and Livestock Degree Program - Academic Support

The center’s degree program seeks to provide local youth with technical skills and official certification to improve their community through efficient agriculture and livestock development. Enhancing these local industries will consequently lead to improved living conditions for students, their families, and their communities. In addition, there should be a resulting decrease in the percentage of youth that emigrate to urban areas.

 

Opportunities

• Academic Administration
• Develop agriculture and livestock courses as well as general skills training courses
• Administer exams
• Guide student’s lab work
• Assist in work projects
• General Administration
• Manage paperwork, address absentee issues, handle grade recording
• Provide support for students that are unable to complete the course
• Streamline enrollment procedures, provide library management
• Offer greenhouse support
• Conduct inventory reviews
• Assist in developing contracts with other institutions
• Aid in general policy making
• Support vendor services, accounting, etc.

 

Requirements

• Intermediate Spanish
• Experience in agronomy, sociology, sustainable development, alternative production, marketing, small business ventures, and/or related areas
• Experience in similar or related projects to those mentioned above preferred
• Ability to take initiative in an organization with limited resources
• Basic understanding of Quechua would be extremely useful
• Open-minded; demonstrates cultural sensitivity, creativity, and patience

 

2. Agriculture and Livestock Degree Program - Production Projects

Production projects are an essential part of the center’s academic training activities and development in the 36 communities that make up the municipality of Arampampa. The program offers structured production projects in the field of agriculture and livestock as well as in other local production initiatives. The production projects also include diverse and concrete skills training workshops (in areas such as artesanías and carpentry) offered to the general population to aid in the diversification and efficiency of production. In this way the students in the academic degree program can assist and initiate community projects and work towards integrating community members into projects that will benefit the community as a whole.

 

Opportunities

• Analyze, propose, and administer livestock and agriculture production projects
• Research the possibility of introducing new and/or improving current agriculture and livestock production, such as the production of quinoa, lupinus, vegetables, etc.
• Research the market and physical resources needed to find the best products to produce
• Evaluate the possibility of introducing microfinance initiatives to offer financial support for agriculture and livestock farmers
• Explore sustainable energy options, such as solar tents

 

Requirements

• Intermediate Spanish
• Experience in agronomy, sociology, sustainable development, alternative production, marketing, small business ventures, and/or related areas
• Experience in similar or related projects to those mentioned above preferred
• Ability to take initiative in an organization with limited resources
• Basic understanding of Quechua would be extremely useful
• Open-minded; demonstrates cultural sensitivity, creativity, and patience

 

Program Supervisor (All Programs)

Luc Mattheji is an economist from Holland and has been Director of CECTFIA in Asanquiri and Save the Children’s related programs since its inception in 2005. He has been working in Bolivia since September 2004 when he began as a volunteer with the Organization INCA as an economic project analyst. After his work with INCA, he started working for the International British Service and Save the Children.

 

Note: Responsibilities offered to each participant will be proportionate to their level of experience. Participants who are new to development work may predominantly support and assist current project agendas, while those with much applicable experience may be able to assume greater responsibility. Research projects are strongly encouraged by this organization to support each program’s objectives because minimal resources are currently allocated for research.

 

Working Conditions

The Bilbao Rioja Province is located in the Northern Department of Potosí, one of the poorest regions of Bolivia. The Bilbao Province is divided into two sections—the Arampampa Municipality, which is the site of the Save the Children CECTFIA project; and the Municipality of Acasio. Arampampa is a highly mountainous region with a 100% rural population. There are about 4,900 inhabitants between the town of Arampampa and the 36 Quechua-speaking farming communities within the municipality.

 

Approximately 60% of the participant’s work will take place in the small community of Asanquiri in the Potosi Municipality of Arampampa. Arampampa is one of the poorest regions in all of Bolivia; it only has roads to its main communities during the dry season and the majority of the communities can only be reached by foot.

 

Asanquiri is home to a handful of families that are all subsistence-based farmers and is the site of the Save the Children CECTFIA Center (a large classroom and a boarding home for the students). The Center has two small offices with a computer, printer, photocopy machine, and small library. The Center has the capacity to house 40 youth per year.

 

CECTFIA Center’s infrastructure includes:

• A wing with a medical center, including housing for the nurse and a living room
• Housing for the director, equipped with a meeting room and office
• A large classroom for skills training courses
• General housing for visitors working in the community, including a kitchen, three bedrooms and an additional room for personal space or work
• A wing with two furnished dorm-style rooms with 20 beds and a kitchen
• A conference room with a mini-library, audio/visual room, and small office
• Two bathrooms, two solar showers, a solar tent, a water tank, a stable, and a greenhouse

 

In addition, participants have access to the Arampampa municipal facilities that are 8km from the Asanquiri Center. These facilities include computers, printers, photocopy machines, local records, and a library.

 

The academic year lasts from February to December. However, administrative and technical work takes place throughout the year. Vacations are during Carnival, New Years, and Christmas.

 

Organizational Background

The Center was constructed in the 1990s, and initially functioned as a space for workshops and meetings for local unions. Centro CECTFIA began its academic programs in the Municipal of Arampampa in May 2006 by offering an agricultural and livestock degree to the local youth. The Center has been very successful; it has been able to increase the number of student participants, as well as further develop infrastructure. Initially the Center hosted 15 Quechua students, comprised of four women and 11 men. The students lived in dormitories since the distance from their homes and communities was so far from the Center.

 

Save the Children - CECTFIA offers Quechua youth (ages 20–25) from the Arampampa Municipal and its nearby communities an opportunity to earn a degree in agriculture and livestock. Its principal goal is to serve youth in the region that have no access to education or who are forced to migrate to large cities to seek work and a better life—something that, more often than not, is an unrealistic dream rather than a real solution to their life in poverty. Many youth migrate to large cities or other countries, including Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Chapare, the United States, and Spain. The center also trains adults from the 36 communities of Arampampa (5,000 inhabitants).

 

A portion of the academic part of the Center involves proposing and implementing agricultural, livestock, and artesanía projects. Through these projects, the Center aims to provide technical support for the other 36 Arampampa communities.

 

About Save the Children’s Clients

The zone produces wheat, potatoes, some corn, and raises small animals for family consumption. There are 24 schools for the 36 communities; the majority of students only attend until their second or third year of elementary school (girls usually attend even fewer years). In addition to the lack of schools, most students have to walk a few hours each way in order to continue their studies up to the 6th grade. To finish elementary school (8th grade) and continue onto high school, youth have to leave the municipality, which means moving away from their family and home and immigrating to a more economically developed region. Few students have the opportunity to do this, and for those who are able to move away, the split frequently leads to the deterioration of the family and the continuation of local ways of living.