The main goal of Sustainable Bolivia is to promote sustainable development and the preservation of the environment in the Bolivian Amazon, especially in the two communities living in the Aquicuana Reserve.
Indeed, two communities live in this Reserve, Warnes and San José. Therefore, we truly believe that we must raise awareness and sense of responsibility on this 20,000-hectare natural space of jungle and wildlife. Thus, even if all generations must feel affected and responsible, we think that it is essential to focus our work towards future generations to give them the power of change, whether this is at home or at work.
In this regard, former volunteers previously implemented the ecological club in the Warnes School. Currently, myself and Esther, another volunteer, take part in this ecological club. Through this project, we organize several activities such as presentations, talks and a recycling system. The latter is quite remarkable in Riberalta as generally very few people recycle, but also because of the lack of recycling possibilities set up by the local government.
Andrés, a Chilean volunteer of early 2018, was the person who started the project. During the week, he lived in Pisatahua to work exclusively on this project and to be closer to the school. Once Andrés left, the project slowed down. However, even though Sustainable Bolivia initially struggled with providing sufficient amounts of volunteers, the project was highly supported by the school and a teacher.
Today, both Esther and I have taken over this projects, as we both share the enthusiasm of Sustainable Bolivia to revitalize it. Among talks with the students, making images and implementing a compost system, we also provide help towards the management of the park and its garden projects which the school aims to carry out. The idea is to involve the children as much as possible, especially those which will leave school soon. Thereby, we want to give them as much knowledge and experience as possible to influence some of their accustomed habits, both at home and at work.
The school closes at the end of November, so we don’t have much time to work this year. We will have to postpone some projects, because of the coming rainy season and because of the beginning of the Brazil nuts harvest, which causes a lot of students to leave school and help their families during this time.
However, even once the school is closed, we want to keep working on the ecological club, though this time including the whole community. We already have some projects in mind, such as cleaning or reforestation activities. Furthermore, we still want to involve the children, but this time outside of their classroom walls.
Generally, the club’s success offers many possibilities to the NGO. Not only does it bring about the achievement of developing other mindsets and breaking some habits, it also offers the opportunity to open similar clubs in other schools and, thus, extending both Sustainable Bolivia’s partner network and its range of action.
