News

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.

It is many months since I have written you about Bolivian Friends. Today I do so with a sigh of relief, since the installation of a new president has eased the crisis that has gripped Bolivia for three weeks, shutting down La Paz and making food and fuel (remember: it is mid-winter there) unavailable to the poor. Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé, still in his forties, with a graduate degree from Harvard, and until now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, seems trusted by all parties. He is expected to call for early elections, probably in August or September. The action further prepares the way for a third revolution in Bolivia, following those effected by the remarkable Victor Paz in 1952 and 1982.

"Two exciting developments are the plans of two teachers from Abington Friends School to offer workshops on
Quaker teaching methods at the Friends schools in Bolivia, and the decision of Fredonia Meeting to sponsor one of the scholarship students. Again this year two Westtown students..."

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"...all those that participated in the scholarship had thought it likely that our proposal of scholarship aid to Bolivian Quaker students was only a remote promise. Many have spilled tears for help like ours in moments of
great need and poverty in Bolivia." Bernabe Yujra, BQE-Bo Coordinator

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It is months since I have written. BQEF is still very much alive. We had a board meeting in early June, and in the following six weeks I had displays at four Friends gatherings: the Friends Association for Higher Education and Friends General Conference, as well as both Northwest YM and New York YM. A strenuous schedule. The database has grown, but we missed sending out a spring newsletter.