Home Photography Work In Bolivia, 'the worst family may be better than the best institution.' (csmonitor)

Kallutaca Project Page

(Ki-you-taka)

Overview

In the first part of 2007, I spent about three months volunteering with Para Los Niños, a Bolivian NGO. While Para Los Niños works with many homes in La Paz area for ward-of-the-state individuals, I volunteered with the Kallutaca home. They needed someone with technical skills for a series of fencing upgrades. Kallutaca was difficult to access, recieved few volunteers, and it was full of a bunch of tough-luck individuals. In short, it seemed like a great match.

About Kallutaca

Kallutaca is a government run home in Bolivia for mentally and physically disabled adults. All the residents in this home are either orphans or, being abandoned, they effectively have no families. This home is located outside of El Alto, Bolivia, near the town of Laja. Given the amount of corruption, mismanagement, and the lack of financial resources in the Bolivian government, the conditions in this home are very basic. Basic facilities, such as running water, showers, and adequate toilets are and were severely limited.

Additionally, a nearly continuous shortage of staff means that the residents are poorly supervised. As a result, the residents occasionally take long walks from the property and there is a great deal of difficulty in safely locating these residents and returning them to their home. Previously, two residents of Kallutaca took long walks that ended their deaths. One fell in a neighboring well and drowned, while the other covered 10 kilometers before dying of exposure at night.

Fencing, The Project

From the outset of having volunteered with fencing-in Kallutaca, the whole project sounded pretty straightforward and tidy. From hindsight, it was most everything but that. Another volunteer, Anne, had noticed that a better fence could make a significant impact in safeguarding the lives of the Kallutaca residents. To that end, she started raising money and making it known that fencing would be a good idea. I started working on the project at about that time. Another volunteer or two were floating around, but they contributed little more than distractions, bad ideas, and false information.

I slowly realized that if the fencing was going to get done, I would have to look after pretty much all the technical and construction issues. Anne had the idea and the audacity to pursue it, I somehow wound up furnishing the muscles, aches, and the pains!

My work spanned from the initial walking of the fence, to many weeks later, watching Rolando (the manager of Kallutaca) lock the main gate. Those two simple events encompased surveying, weeks of working from waking to sleeping, many, many, days of walking the streets of La Paz and El Alto finding suppliers, thinking, planning, raising funds, and perhaps too infrequently, praying that it all might work out. And then one day, after many hards yards and lots of learning, the project was done. All told, a little more than twenty-five people worked on the project.

The fencing effort repaired 1.2 kilometers of chain link fencing and led to the constructed 400 meters of new High Tension Smooth Wire fencing (HTSW fencing is essentially a multi-strand, durable fence of 3mm wire). About 150 new fence posts were installed and roughly 60 meters worth of holes were fixed in the chain link.

Funding

While the fence was relatively cheap, it still cost about $1,950. To give an idea of the value of $1,950 in Bolivia, the average Bolivian construction worker's income is about $1,600, while the average income of an American construction worker is around $37,000. Of course, the project value cannot be scaled linearly by this relationship. As much of the fencing expenses were from imported durable goods, such as tools and wire (whose base value is tied to global metal prices) it would be incorrect to do so. Still, $1,950 is a noticeable amount of money in Bolivia; particuarly when a laborer is typically only being paid in the range of $4.40 to $9.50 a day.

As mentioned above, Anne collected much of the initial funds. This money covered 77% of the construction costs. The remainder of the funds came from a rubber ducky race that was organized with the help of Ryan and Heidi McNally-Linz, two other Americans in La Paz, Bolivia. The race was quite interesting, in that every single rubber ducky was lost under the city of La Paz! The website for the race may be found at highestducky.org.

For all who gave money to this project, thank you. It is my belief that the money was spent well and that it went to benefit a vunerable group of people who have very few people truely working for their well being.

A Great Education

Working the Kallutaca fencing project was a great education in the challenges that face poor countries. The problems faced in this project were quite unremarkable for Bolivia and they quite remarkable for a person acostomed to work in developed nations. Corruption, theft, indifference, intransigent workers, poor work ethics, and stupidity, all manifested themselves on a nearly continuous basis throughout this project. Having previously managed work of this nature, it was easy to be able to motivate good workers - however it was very hard to find 'good' workers in the first place. Good was also relative, none of the people that I had working for me would likely have kept their jobs in the States, they were all of that poor quality. When all was said and done, I realized that there were only two Bolivians that I trusted.

Changes

Even in Bolivia, positive changes do take place from time to time. During my time in Bolivia, another shower was installed, the fence was repaired, and a phone was made available for use at Kallutaca. A number of minor repairs were also caried out. Lights were fixed, door locks were installed, and little details were attended to. Predicatably, all of these changes were driven forward by, and funded by, foreigners.

While this is far from a 'sustainable' model, not many other options exist in places such such as Bolivia. While it is regretable that Bolivians are not doing more for their own, it is a fact of life.

Epiloge

Having left my stint volunteering with Para Los Niños, it is interesting how some things never quite leave you. The corruption, the spiritual darkness, and the evil that permeated Bolivian society were tough. I went through at least ten workers on this project, of which three of them could work hard enough and with enough dilligence to keep their jobs. I did not ask for much, just solid work for a solid days pay. Some quit, keeping up with the gringo(s) was apparently too hard. Others were asked not to come back. Three were kept for the duration of the project. All of them were disapointing.

The workers the government sent (this was a government home after all) did horrid work, were irregular, and stole tools. The day laborers were not much better. Either poor quality work or theft. I trusted my three 'keeper' guys and paid them well so I would not lose them. They worked hard and did not steal tools. Then on the last day I happened look into the greehouse where they were changing (Bolivian laborers wear different clothes to and from work). They were stealing produce meant for the orphans of Kallutaca. Ouch.

After I returned to the States, I got an email. One of the only two people that I trusted in Bolivia, the director of Kallutaca, was fired. On his way out he stole the only phone from Kallutaca. After years of medical emergencies and no way to call for help, Kallutaca had just gotten a phone a couple weeks earlier. Now it was gone. The frustrating part? I thought I knew him. We worked hard together. Sweating in the sun, putting up fence, chasing down suppliers in the slums and back alleys of El Alto, he seemed quite Christ-like, and professed to not be like the others.

Life is hard. But with Christ, there is hope.

 

...look after orphans and widows in their distress...