Clotilde Roza, the director of UMAVIDA

RED UMAVIDA, the Joining Hands partner network I’m working with, came together with one of its member organizations, CISTEM ("Cento de Investigacion Social y Trabajo en Equipos Multidisciplinarios" or "Center for Social Investigation and Work with Multidisciplinary Teams") and with a few other groups to put on the "Water School" event. The goal was to raise awareness of water issues in Bolivia, and to educate and empower the attendees so that they might continue the fight for water rights in their own local communities.

The first day was all lectures on the history and societal impacts of water. The presenters were brought in from several Bolivian universities and were all quite informative. This first day was also great because it provided the opportunity for participants from across the country to dialogue with each other.

The more than 40 participants came from schools all across Bolivia

"Patcha", professor of anthropology at the university in La Paz gives a presentation on the history of water issues in Bolivia.

Day two was much more hands on, an opportunity for us to visit the community of Anchallani, which has been impacted by a lack of water. We took a bus from Oruro out into the Altiplano to their tiny village three hours away.

Stunning vistas of high, arid Andean plains

The ride out offered stunning vistas of high, arid Andean plains and provided the perfect opportunity to reflect on why water is so precious here. An official delegation from the community met us when we finally arrived at the village and explained to us the specific problems they are facing with water, or lack there of. We spent the entire day in the field overlooking Anchallani and by the end I believe much was learned on both sides.

After we were done talking, it was onto a feast put on by the community. Plates and utensils were nowhere to be found, but that just made the meal all the better! The menu: potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, corn, beans and llama. I loved that we were just handed chunks of llama, hot from the pit in the ground where it was cooked, to be eaten with our bare hands. All the food was delicious, and the community atmosphere lead to more sharing.

Students making plans

Day three was back in the classroom where participants learned about Global Climate change and how that is impacting water in Bolivia in particular, as well as ways to implement sustainability within the country.

Alexandra Flores presented about global climate change and how that is impacting water in Bolivia in particular.

The whole of day four was a plan-making seminar. It was really great as the full focus of the day was to come up with a plan of action to help the community we had visited two days earlier.

Nailing down the problem of the community (solo blue card in the center), the causes of the problem (the light blue cards at the bottom) and the results of the problem (darker blue cards at the top). Lack of organization within the community itself was identified as the central problem.

We were broken up into groups and were asked to brainstorm the central problem of the community, the causes of the problem and the results of the problem.

After we'd nailed it down with the help of the leader we were asked to come up with solutions to the problem by transforming the statements from negative to positive.

For example: one of the causes mentioned was "limited participation of women in the community" so the solution for that card was "more participation of women in the community". Everyone was thoroughly engaged and the entire process was quite fascinating.

One of the solutions offered by participants was "more participation of women in the community".

From this school, participants learned about the history and societal impacts of water in Bolivia, how water is being affected by climate change, got ideas on how to implement sustainability into water use, visited a community being impacted by the lack of access to water, and were taught how to analyze such problems and come up with workable solutions. The school will continue through October with groups of students working on and presenting water projects from their own local areas. The Esqualla del Agua has been extremely successful thus far and has been a pleasure to be apart of. I look forward to it being implemented in other cities across Bolivia.

With a little over 40 students from all across Bolivia participating in the first class for this pilot program, UMAVIDA is gathering feedback with the hopes to institute the four day workshop at schools in many other cities in Bolivia

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