News

The English Program Teachers:     Three teachers participate in the BQEF English Program - Elena Torrez, Margarita Coaquira, and Elizabeth Lucero. We meet once a month to share and discuss how the English classes are going at the three Quaker Schools. Teacher Elena usually has a lot to share about her classes at Los Amigos Quaker High School. She is in charge of all 12 English classes weekly, which is a very demanding and interesting work for her. In each class of the four secondary levels (9th through 12th grades,) she has over twenty-five students. She holds these classes at the English lab which was installed BQEF's help.

Wonderful News!

By the time you read this, Alicia Lucasi and Rubén Hilari, two young Bolivian Quaker teachers, will be on their way to the US for face-to-face interaction with US Friends and with Quaker education in the US.

The English Program, which is additional English classes, was held during nine months in 2007. It had three English teachers who worked at three different Quaker Schools in La Paz. More than 39 students, who belong to Emmanuel, Los Amigos, and Emma Canaday School, were benefited with this Program; most of them were in Secondary level. The participants had two English classes per week in the mornings, where they learned English language and as well they reinforced it. They worked a lot on different language skills as speaking, listening, writing, and reading, but the time was not enough for practicing more. Furthermore, they had a gathering on September where they performed many activities in English.

The Healthy Students Proposal

From Our Scholarship Students...
Loida Cutipa, March 28: May you have a lovely day and may God bless your lives and your work that you carry out day today…My studies this semester cost $340 (US) and I receive $250 (US) from the scholarship …I work cleaning the institution in order to complete my payment and my expenses for food and other expenses for studying.

This has been an extraordinary month for the Internado.  School started in February with the Internado in the same location as last year, and enrollment up from eleven to eighteen.  A good beginning, indeed, in spite of the site being temporary.  A building was located that promised better control of comings and goings and more solid structure, but it seemed a distant prospect.  Within just three weeks, however, all the arrangements have been made and the Internado will move (piece by piece) this weekend, March 30-31.  WOW !!  There is now a permanent place for the young students (mostly Quakers) who otherwise would have to walk one to two hours each way to attend middle school or high school.

"Dinner with Emma" ~ by Newton Garver
Emma Condori, now 28, visited the USA from mid-December 2005 through mid-February, the final month being a most valuable internship at Westtown School. Prior to her visit, she told Jens Braun and me during our 2005 trip to Bolivia that she would like to meet with us, so we took her to an Israeli restaurant in La Paz for supper. It was an unforgettable experience.

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Spotlighted Student: Meet new recipient Elsa Castaños Rodríguez.
Elsa is in her fourth semester at Simon Bolivar Normal (Teaching) School, studying full-time to be a math teacher. Elsa lives in Vino Tinto, north of La Paz, with her parents and 10 siblings who attend public school. Her father is a construction worker, and her mother keeps the house. Elsa, 23, is a member of INELA Yearly Meeting. She was born in La Paz city.

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Meaningful Travel
By Katie Lee, BQEF volunteer and Westtown student

REPORTS ON AN FCE-TYPE WORKSHOP IN LA PAZ

Andrew Rutledge & Catalina Ríos, presenters: On Saturday, August 13, 2005, the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund offered a full day workshop for Bolivian Quaker teachers and administrators. The topics included an overview of Quaker history and testimonies, Quaker education, and administrative structures in U.S. Quaker schools. 70 participants representing 4 schools enjoyed a day of sharing ideas about Quaker education through PowerPoint presentations, dialogues, question and answer sessions, and small group exercises.