Education Bolivia Project #28318

Help Bolivian Children Living in Poverty

by Rosa Vera Fund, Inc.

Project Report | Dec 18, 2019
Despite Political Unrest...Our Work is Flourishing!

By Karen Melk | Chair of Board

A Recent Meeting at La Escuelita

Dear Wonderful Supporters

By now, you've probably read or heard quite a bit about the political unrest in Bolivia. Almost every day brought new stories about protests, political twists and turns, and predictions about what might happen next. Tragically, some of the protests incurred violence, and some of the deadliest violence happened right in the city where we work - Montero. Roads were blocked and many businesses temporarily closed. Through it all, though, the Rosa Vera Fund has done what we've done for years......helped children who needed help the most.

We are proud to say that La Escuelita, our school and therapy center, stayed open for business. Teachers and therapists continued to come to work, and parents continued to bring their children in for therapies and classes. Yes, some of these commutes were hours longer than usual, due to sporadic public transportation or road blocks, but everyone took these hurdles in stride and did what they needed to do in order not to interrupt their child's progress. Due to roadblocks, one teacher rode her bike over an hour and a half, determined to keep teaching the students. Parents didn't miss a beat - when public transportation halted, they carried or wheeled their non-ambulatory children to therapy appointments. It was an amazing showing of dedication!

As future political changes unfold, we are cofident that the Rosa Vera Fund will be able to weather the storm and just keep plugging along, doing what we do best: Provide medical care and social interventions for children with special health care needs, who have no other options.

I wish I knew the words to express exactly how much your support means to us.Please know, without exaggeration, that because of you, kids are walking instead of being stuck in wheelchairs; because of you, kids are speaking and making themselves understood. Because of you, families are moving away from the abyss of poverty and building a solid, safer life for their entire family.

Veggie/Fruit markets back open for business

JC receives speech therapy for partial deafness

Links:

Check out our website!

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Sep 10, 2019
July 2019 Medical & Board Trip to Bolivia

By Karen Melk | Board Chair

RVF patient with her twin sister and grandmother

Hello Supporters! It's a pleasure to update you on our project!

In July, Drs. Jonathan (CEO) & Darlene Melk (Chief Medical Officer) along with Lesley Alderman (Board, Grants/Fundraising) spent a week in Montero, Bolivia, visiting each of the children in the Fund, and spent several days at La Escuelita - our school & therapy center. Highlights include:

1. The U.S. medical team spent several hours with the Bolivian medical team, which was comprised of doctors, nurses, care coordinators, a social worker, special education teacher, physical therapist, and speech therapist. The goal is to come at each child's special healthcare needs with different perspectives, with the hope of achieving the best possible outcome.

2. Drs. Jonathan and Darlene visited each child enrolled in RVF in his/her own home, to understand more the impact a child's home environment might have on their case.

3. An updated plan outlining medical, educational and social interventions was prepared for each child, which will be monitored weekly by the Bolivian staff and monthly through Skype visits by the U.S. doctors.

Overall, the children are doing well! They are all growing and progressing each day. Some of the cases are more difficult than others, but overall everyone is moving in the right direction.

We met with the CSRA leadership and made some big decisions regarding the cases moving forward. A top priority for this year is to accept many, many more children into the Fund.

Jonathan & Darlene met several of the children who we hope to take off the waiting list as soon as possible.

Immediate Goal: Increase the total number of active cases in the fund to 20 - 25.

New Determination: In most cases, limit the time of the child receiving RVF financial support to 3 years or 21 years of age (whatever comes first)

Yearly Goal: Focus our efforts on expanding services and programs at La Escuelita

Sincerely,

An RVF patient joins his family for meals

Every child deserves a chance to go to school!

Dr. Darlene meets with moms of RVF patients

The entire RVF team - Bolivians & Americans!

Maria del Carmen, RN works weekly with Yoselin

Links:

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May 31, 2019
Graduation Season is here - for RVF patients as well!

By Karen Melk | Board Chair

Thxs for believing I could learn to read & write!

Dear Friends:

We are excited to share the following updates with you:

1. Several of our RVF patients are graduating from the Fund!

As you know, we are dedicated to helping children with special healthcare conditions that can't be fixed overnight: deafness, cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities, autism, etc. In order to truly make a LASTING difference in the lives of these children and their families, we offer several years of physical & speech therapy, as well as ongoing special education classes. For some kids, special ed is needed only to help the child catch up to peers, upon which they can rejoin their regular school. For other kids, attending our special education classes is the only chance the child will have to learn skills to the best of their ability.

Several patients are ready to move on. Two of them are now 21 and have aged out of our programs. In other cases, the children have accomplished their goals and no longer need our support. In all instances, the kids would not be in the position they are without your support. I truly mean that. Thank you!

We are in the process of adding children to our programs from our extensive waiting list........thank you for being part of the reason parents will be hearing "Yes! We can help your child!"

2. Our medical trip to Bolivia is coming up - July 6th - 13th. We will be visiting every single patient in their home environment, and going over each child's medical plan. Two board members will be attending as well. (All expenses involved with this trip are covered by the individual board members - no donations are used for any expenses.)

3. The Rosa Vera Fund is ready to grow. This is enormously exciting and a bit nerve-wracking......we are ready to triple the number of children we currently treat. More on this in the next project update - details will be finalized after the upcoming medical trip.

Thank you for sticking with us through the daily grind of what takes hard work and determination: months and sometimes years of intensive physical and speech therapy, the pain of breaking in new leg braces, the long wait for a decent wheelchair, the patience required reaching a child with autism.

As a whole, so many billions of children and adults live in a state of poverty in our world without any such hope or opportunity. Please know that your involvement truly does ease the lives of our fellow and less fortunate mothers, fathers and children. It is all worth it.

With gratitude,

Karen Melk, Chair, Rosa Vera Fund

No longer isolated -I learned to sign & read lips!

Joaquin graduates! He's ready for a basic job.

Edith finished her community college course!

Our therapy school - where the hard work happens!

Links:

RVF facebook page for more stories!!

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