Bolivian Grads Give Back, Sponsor New Student

From reports by Juan Yujra, Bernabé Yujra, Rubén Hilare, Beatriz Apaza, and Abigail Medina

One Saturday this past June, 17 of the 77 graduates of the BQEF Scholarship program gathered for a reunion. There they met the challenge of helping the next generation.

During the reunion, the Scholarship Committee and Bernabé Yujra presented a challenge: to support the next generation of Quaker young people who have the same needs that they had as students.  As part of this challenge, he asked for commitments to help at least one scholarship student in the second semester of 2011.  

Meet Irma
The former scholarship students responded generously and provided contributions and pledges that now support the first scholarship student sponsored in Bolivia.

Irma Lima Tarqui is in her third of a five year course in Public Accounting at San Andres University, where she is currently taking six classes.  She and her classmates work so well together that the university has become like a second home to her.  Recently Irma presented a talk based on her research of the net worth of the Bank of the Andes Pro-Credit, comparing the capital and net worth during 2000, 2005, and 2010.

She and her family are members of “The Tabernacle” Monthly Meeting in El Alto, part of INELA yearly meeting.  Irma is in the choral ministry of the district.  This year she was charged with missions of the youth society of her church and for several months taught children in the Church of Achocalla, also part of their district.

What other good things are our grads up to?
The biggest professional impact of the graduates attending the reunion is in education. Juan Carlos Balboa is now teaching in a public school in Batallas.   Rebeca Tintaya Villavicencio is teaching computers in the public schools of El Alto.  Sara Mamani Tito is teaching psychology at ISETA, an institute of INELA. Valeria Huanca Cantunta is teaching children in El Alto through Compassion International.  Beatriz Apaza Condori also works at Compassion International, as manager of a comprehensive support program for children in the Alto Miraflores zone.

Graduates are also entering government and business.  Guido Lucio Quispe Mendoza works for the government in the Ministry of Environment.  Rubén Ruiz Huanca graduated in Agricultural Engineering and is working for PRADERA, an agricultural organization.  Guisela Ariana Mendoza Limachi works for the FIE Bank in the city of La Paz.  

Other graduates have married or are continuing their education. Emma Condori Mamani is now studying for her M.Div. at the Earlham School of Religion. Most grads are actively involved in church, community and Bolivian Quaker Education activities.
 

Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, these and other former scholarship students are changing live, changing their country.