Another year !

Annual Progress Report

|Sponsored child name: Marisol-mariela Miranda

Sponsored child number: 0409 -002429 | 8
Community name: SantaAna Nueva
Sponsor name: Rotary Club Of Burlington Cen

Sponsor number: 002 - 449603

Dear Rotary Club Of Burlington Central,

I am sure you are eager to hear about the progress made by Marisol-mariela and her family. For this report I visited Marisol-mariela's family and spoke with Marisol-mariela's father Eulogio. We talked about many things and during our conversation he told me of the changes which had taken place in the last year both for the family and also within the community.

Marisol-mariela's progress

Let me start by telling you about Marisol-mariela. The attached photograph will show you how
she has grown over the year and Eulogio told me that she enjoys playing with pets. Children ~
know that they play an important part in family life and are proud of their responsibilities
although such tasks can sometimes be very time consuming. Marisol-mariela is now able to help her family with household chores. Marisol-mariela is still attending the primary school. She has been promoted to the fifth grade. Unfortunately, her performance at school is now below average. We hope she will improve with proper motivation. Her favourite lessons at school are still mathematics and sports.

Strengthening a friendship

Marisol-mariela and her family are looking forward to strengthening their friendship with you. It gives them a warm feeling to see that you have shown concern for them.

Marisol-mariela's family
There have been no changes to the family living in the household over the last year so Marisol
mariela continues to live with the following people.

Eulogio, her father. He works as a labourer. Pastora, her mother. She works as a housewife. Wilfredo, her brother. He works as a labourer. Yaneth, her sister. She works as a housewife. Enilda, her sister. She works as a housewife.

Marisol-mariela's health
Eulogio told me that fortunately Marisol-mariela has been healthy over the last year.

Where Marisol-mariel. and her family live

There have been no changes in the living conditions for Marisol-mariela and her family since the
last report. This means that your continued support is invaluable to the family in order that they
can improve their situation. I hope to report some improvements next time.

Progress and achievements
Like most poor communities, living conditions in Santa Ana Nueva are diffficult with a multitude
of problems affecting children, their families and the entire community. Marisol-mariela and her
family together with their friends and neighbours have worked hard over the last year to address
some of these problems. Participating in community meetings and sharing responsibility for
carrying out projects has been important in developing the community's partnership with Plan.
All their efforts together with your valuable support have made the following projects possible,
projects that will benefit the whole community either now or in the future. The attached
photograph illustrates one of these projects.

Each rural community should have a vision of what they want for the future. A community planspecifies projects in diverse fields (such as education, health, sanitation and others). Through participatory planning, PLAN helps women, children and men from the community to translatetheir desires and aspirations into concrete project. PLAN also helps to see that these plans arewritten within the context of the municipal development plans, which will helpensure that theMunicipal Governments make their financial contributions to the community projects. iIn the majority of poor communities, there is little consciousness of children's rights. PLAN hasbeen helping to increase awareness about the rights of children in three audiences: the childrenthemselves, their parents and the communities. Awareness is raised through a variety of activities that include publications, posters, theater, radio messages, educational fairs and other activities.

With the support of PLAN, an evaluation of the health programs that benefited the afffiliated
families in your community was undertaken. This evaluation permitted decision-making to ~
improve the programs implemented on behalf of the children and their mothers. ·j
PLAN has run workshops, sessions and discussions on education themes allowing PLAN to
integrate and interest the parents and community members in the educational process of their ~
children.

The children and their families were helped to maintain good communication with their sponsors.
Through these activities, the children practiced their reading and writing and strengthened their
oral and written communication abilities, and learned about the cultures of their sonsors's
countries, bringing the outside world closer to the rural areas of Bolivia. Costs covered the
preparation of audio-visual and written material for communication, and diffusion of message in
mass media. '~

The families in afffiliated communities with children under 5 have participated in communal courses where they learn how to prevent common illnesses such as diarrhea, coughs, fever, measles, malnutrition and anemia, which frequently put the life of children at risk; how to take care of the children when they are sick and when it is necessary to take them to the closest health center.

With PLAN's help and in coordination with the Ministry of Health, the health services staff received training in Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI), following the standards of the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health. The IMCI is the most important strategy of the World Health Organization to reduce child mortality under five years of age.

Now, the staff is capable of providing higher quality attention to these children when they become ill with diarrhea, cough, fever, measles, malnutrition and anaemia and of offering advice to the parents on how to avoid the illnesses.

Plan has been coordinating information, education and communication activibes on water and basic sanitation. These actvities are important because the rural communities frequently do not know how to take care of and adequately use water and new basic sanitation installabons Workshops, short sessions on general training and formation of the local people into groups in charge are held in the communities. Costs cover purchase of materials of support for educational sessions, cost of refreshments, and other items closely linked to the activity.

In the rural communities, the women contribute effectively to the income generation for the family. With the goal of providing training for them in productive abilities such as carpentry, weaving, baking and food preparation, PLAN, in coordination with other specialized institutions has given training workshops to reinforce and teach new practices, the same which will allow the women to validate their abilibes, increase their income and improve their participation in family and group activities.

In coordination with the Municipality, PLAN helped to repair the community water system, which has deteriorated over the course of time. This allows the community to have access to potable water.

In order for the community to be able to administer a project, it is necessary that they have a committee in charge of the project and that the members of this committee dominate basic skills that are required for the administration of projects. The community training has a goal of providing the principal skills for managing a bank account, making purchases by choosing the most convenient providers, controlling the stock of materials and supervising the advance of the project. Plan implemented training directed at the titled members and subsUtutes of a committee. Costs includes the purchase of supporting material for educational sessions.

In order for the children attend schools that are in good condition, Plan refurbished classrooms in co-ordinabon with the community, and in agreement with their needs. Managed generally by community project commissions with technical support from partners and/or Plan. Costs include the purchase of furniture such as tables, chairs, desks and others.

Many children and their families are found to be affected by the Chagas disease, especially in regions where this is endemic. This activity included the purchase of medicine to treat infected children. Costs inciude purchase of speciaiized rnedicines such as bendn,dazole and other ar~tiChagasic products necessary for control of the disease.

In order to improve the health of school age children, PLAN has performed activities in coordinabon with governmental health and educational institutions for the promobon of personal hygiene, vaccination, provision of vitamins, nutribon, and deworming as well as training for parents, community leaders, professors and children in the themes of diarrhea, pneumonia, vaccinations, hygiene and nutrition.

PLAN has helped to develop the parent associations and community leaders abilities so that they are able to involve themselves responsibly in the education of their children. Time is given for reflection on teh importance of education for their children, whilst ensuring that the participation of children is emphasised.

With the end goal of raising the ability level and knowledge of the primary teachers andadvancing the Education Reform in Bolivia, Plan, in co-ordination with the Ministry of Educationand Universities, designed and executed training programs for teachers. The training is !6
implemented with key social organisations such as universities, NGOs, specialized training centers and technical personnel of local Ministry of Education offices. The activities include the production of pedagogical material and logistical requirements necessary to implement training
processes and the hiring of facilitators for training.

PLAN, coordinating with the government, the Municipalities and communities, provided books to
the libraries in primary schools. The donated books are approved by the Educational Reform and
are used by the students, in work groups, as guides for the elaboration of their own materials
PLAN supports rotating funds, which are administered by the parents. With these funds the
parents buy notebooks and other school materials that are used by the teachers, foster children
and their siblings in order to develop their learning in primary school.
To improve education conditions, PLAN, working together with the Ministry of Ed'~cation and
parent and teacher associations, bought books to set up a school library.
The Ministry of Health and PLAN support educational activities about sexual health and
reproduction in your foster community, with the goal of contributing to the reduction of
matemal mortality that exists in the area. For this, educational material was elaborated, validated
and reproduces: health personnel and volunteers from the community were trained. The families
in the community received courses on family planning, maternal security, prevention and control
of STD's/AIDS's and the prevention of genital cancer in women.

Children under five years of age in your community have benefited from regular vaccination
activities and periodic campaigns for which PLAN provides logistical support, gasoline,
transportation, alcoho 1, cotton and other essential inputs. These campaigns are strictly |
coordinated with the Ministry of Health, the Municipalities and the communities. The children r eceive vaccines which prevent tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, measles and whooping cough.
Community Health Agents from affiliated and nearby communities have participated in training
workshops given by the Ministry of Health and with technical support and financing from PLAN.
These workshops fulfill standards set by the World Health Organization. The community health
agents contribute to reducing child mortality under 5 years of age, helping the families to apply
prevention measure again illnesses which put children's lives in danger and showing them how to
take care of and feed a sick child at home and take them to a nearby heaith clinic on time.
V`/ith the goui of developing the children in an integrated manner, physically, intellectually and
emotionally, Plan held recreational activities: fairs, theatre, cultural events in which children ~ ~y
shared experiences and complaints with other children in the community. These type of activities
are co-ordinated and developed in schools or communities. Costs include realization of: fairs and
cultural and sporting events carried out for and by children, theatre, reports, trips to the country
and other activities that children identify during Planning.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about the changes and improvements that have happened
in Marisol-mariela's family and community over the last year. We thank you for your continued
commitment and are looking forward to sending you more news next year. Until then, Marisol-
mariela and I send you our warmest greetings. 1

Yours
Marina Marquez, community volunteer

Sponsored child Number :0409 - 002429