World Vision, like ONE, has recently sent out a blogging entourage to report back on struggling regions of the world. This group is in Bolivia. In fact they’re visiting Cochabamba where my husband grew up. Here’s a blurb from one of the bloggers plus a link to her post. You can also click here (World Vision Bloggers) to see the rest of their crew. All in an effort to get our eyes off ourselves.
Listen, when it’s so hot and school is barreling towards us, its hard not to feel consumed with the weight of it all. Might we remember the enormous blessings that surround us. It’s a good time to remind moaning kids… at least mine are moaning and groaning. Tell me I’m not the only one.
Thanks for walking the road with me.
-Kay
Trickle-Up Economics and a Dam Good Story
The terrain of Cochabamba, Bolivia is both breathtakingly beautiful and violently rugged. In the shadow of its snow-covered mountains are hundreds of arid rocky hills, where horses and cows perch as skillfully as mountain goats upon the steep slopes where people too make their homes. The high altitude (over 12,000 feet in some places!) leaves even the most skilled climbers breathless.
It takes most children over an hour to walk the winding gravel roads to school. Women who want or need to deliver their babies in a hospital typically face a three mile walk…while in labor…to the nearest health facility. The average income is just $450 a year.
This is obviously tough land to farm, so many men leave their families behind to migrate to Santa Cruz, Argentina, or even Spain in hopes of harvesting better crops and sending some money home. This leaves women and children vulnerable to poverty, malnutrition, dangerous living conditions, and even sexual exploitation. Some of these men return or send money; others never do.
click here for the rest of the story
