About
Our Mission
We strengthen ties between Andean Quakers and those of North America and Europe through programs that:
enhance the educational opportunities of Andean Friends
nurture service work
create opportunities for intercultural learning between Friends in Bolivia, North America, and Europe.
Origins
The Bolivian Quaker Education Fund, (BQEF) began in 2001. Its roots are in the evangelical Quakers’ first missionary efforts in Bolivia in 1920. In 1995, British Friends Pam and Ken Barratt began to introduce numerous Quakers from the United Kingdom and United States to Bolivia and Bolivian Friends creating a strong bond of solidarity between our communities.
Dona Manoukian of Langley Hill Meeting (Virginia, USA) and Newton Garver of Buffalo Meeting (New York, USA) arranged for two young Bolivian teachers, Cecilia Paco and Loida Cutipa, to visit the US for seven weeks during the summer of 2001. They spoke to ten different Friends gatherings in the eastern states about Quaker schools in Bolivia.
Dona and Newton returned to Bolivia with the Quaker Study Tour in the fall of 2001. Newton stayed on to visit schools and meet with Quaker educators. The plan's original focus was about providing scholarships for post-secondary education of Bolivian Friends, an urgent need because of the large number of young Friends in Bolivia who couldn’t afford to attend university.
It was soon apparent that there were other needs and desires. In response, four dimensions of the BQEF program were established:
Scholarships for post-secondary education
Exchanges between Quaker schools in Bolivia and the US
Instructional enhancement in English, science, and computer literacy
Scholarships for higher education in Bolivia have been the priority. We began with 15 scholarships in 2003 and grew, pre-pandemic to 50!