Help Nico and Lucas Improve Education for Bolivian Kids!

Last summer, with your donations, Lucas and I were able to go to the children’s home in Bolivia equipped with the resources to make a lasting impact on the lives of the 70 incredible kids who live there.

They did not have devices with which to do their homework so they’d have to use the caretakers phones one at a time, so two years ago, we bought 6 Samsung tablets loaded with educational apps like Duolingo, Khan academy, and Scratch Jr for them to learn and do their classwork.

However, their internet was unstable and did not reach the cabins where they live, so they could only use the tablets outside near the router. We bought a better router, 6 WiFi extenders, and cables to attach them all, so now they have connection in every cabin.

In school, they are asked to make projects in Word and PowerPoint, but most of them do not know how to, skills that are also useful in most office jobs. With the miracle-working tech guy Jesús, we designed a 4-week tech skills class to teach them the basics of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. We paid him a salary to teach this course during their summer break on a set of old computers he refurbished, and it was very popular.

The kids spend a lot of time at home without a ton to do, so we brought a bunch of games including connect four, suspend, and set for them to play during the day.

Finally, we bought hundreds of pieces of clothing, from pajamas to sweaters to tshirts, and each kid got to pick out pieces they especially liked and got to keep. I’ve included some photos at the bottom of our trip.

This year, we have four goals:

1. Continue to supply them with clothing, toothbrushes, and board and card games

2. They had a sewing teacher, which is both professionally useful and fun for the kids, but they ran out of money to pay her. We’d like to pay her salary for at least 3 months so the kids can continue developing this hobby and skill.

3. Most importantly, when the kids come to Alalay, they have often missed a lot of school. Either they are too far behind to learn anything in their class, or they are placed in a younger grade which is embarrassing and makes them not want to go to school. We’d like to pay the salary for a reading teacher to come to their home and help them catch up for at least 3 months, hopefully longer.

4. Finally, we’d like to construct a reading corner in every cabin, a comfortable place where the kids can read simple books and play brain games on their own.

We will make sure any donation will be impactful and extremely appreciated. You can donate at this GoFundMe. The Bolivian economy and currency is doing pretty terribly, but that also means your donations will go extra far! Also please feel free to share this with others who might be interested.

Thank you,

Nico