The Awicha Community Development Agency
Location: La Paz, Bolivia
Spokesperson: Jose
About the project
The Awicha Community for Older People was established in 1985 and has been part of Sponsor a Grandparent since 1999. Their main aim is to provide older people who are without family or resources with the opportunity to improve their living standards by providing food, shelter and recreation.
The project works to empower the older people and strengthen their relationships in the community. They do this by providing accommodation in community housing; offering traditional medicine treatments; and hosting workshops where older people produce handicrafts and knitting.
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Who it helps
The Awicha Community for Older People helps any older person in the area who has nowhere else to turn. They have a number of services including communal dining halls that regularly feed 75 older people who cannot feed themselves at home or live at the communal facilities.
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How it helps
The community has a productive unity section, which produces and sells Alpaca wool products. They also bake bread which is used for the community’s own consumption and is, for the first time this year, being sold to create revenue for the community. The communal dining halls are open five days a week and profits made by activities have funded an expansion of their dining service in two rural communities within La Paz.
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Project spokesperson
Name: Jose
Date of Birth: 1920
Jose was born in 1920 in Bolivia. He never went to school because where he grew up, there were no schools to attend. He used to work for the Spanish who had large pieces of land. Through the government, Jose was able to obtain his own small piece of land on which oranges and bananas were grown. He was married but his wife passed away when he was 65. He has 3 children and 10 grandchildren.
When Jose was 50, he had a serious accident which left him in the hospital for over a year. He still suffers from health problems relating to this accident and is slowly losing his sight.
Before Jose joined the Project, he was living in extreme poverty and he was lonely. He now lives in the community with his grandson, who is due to leave for the army soon. He is happy and healthy and has access to basic necessities such as food, toothpaste and medicines. He enjoys playing instruments and listening to music, as well as performing in plays for the community.
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Country information
Country: Bolivia
Size: 1.1 million sq km
Population: 9.1 million
Capital: La Paz
Language: Spanish, Quecha, and Aymara are all official languages.
Climate: The altiplano in the North is a desert-like plateau, whilst the East is semi-tropical with lush vegetation. The South is drier, and more densely populated.
Religion: Roman Catholic 95%, Protestant (Evangelical Methodist) 5%
Literacy: 87% of the population can read and write (compared to 99% in the UK) with a male bias. However, 80% of older women cannot read or write which puts them at a disadvantage.
Older people in Bolivia
There are around half a million older people in Bolivia but over 50% of them live on less than a dollar a day and they are amongst the most marginalised and vulnerable groups in the country. The population is ageing rapidly, but policies and social protection measures that are needed to manage this change are totally inadequate. For the large numbers of older people living in remote rural settings and city slums, lack of identity papers cuts them off from any government services. Even when they can produce the relevant identification to prove their age, the annual payment scheme to which they are entitled works out to just 9 pence a day. As in the rest of Latin America, many older people report discrimination and abuse, and the majority are not organised or represented. Basics rights to food, shelter, healthcare and material security are often not met. Moreover, they are excluded from development processes and unaware of their statutory rights and entitlements. Indigenous older women are less likely than their male counterparts to speak Spanish which makes it even more difficult for them to be aware of their rights and access the support they need.
Poverty
The migration of young people to towns and cities in search of livelihoods has left wide rural expanses with large populations of extremely poor older people. Most rural workers are living at subsistence levels and these abandoned communities are struggling to survive.
Many older people care for their grandchildren and young family members, which places a massive burden on significant proportion of rural older people already living in extreme or chronic poverty. Very few receive a pension and over 85% of older people are forced to continue working in order to support themselves at even a basic level.
Health
Average life expectancy is just 63 for men and 67 for women. Poor health is the main obstacle to older people trying to generate income, care for themselves and contribute to their communities. There is a health insurance scheme in place for older people but few are actually enrolled in it, due to ignorance on the part of older people and lack of adequate administration on the part of the local government, who frequently fail to inform people of its availability. The majority of older people reside in rural areas and are not able, or cannot afford, to travel long distances for health care. Most preventable and minor illnesses are therefore not treated at all and older people often resort to indigenous medicines.
Disaster
Bolivia is prone to flooding in the northeast during March and April. This increases the vulnerability of older people, who can be given a low priority in times of emergency.
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