Today’s Good People, Good Works will be presented in Spanish, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

I think that we really need to partner, you and us and the many other groups and organizations that are working together to create opportunities for people that are struggling in other places. If we can really pool our resources I think (it) could save us as a society.

Hallo, beneficient viewers, and welcome to today’s Good People: Good Works, featuring part two of a two-part series on Mano a Mano, an organization that works in partnership with governments, sponsors and local communities to provide better health, education and economic well-being for the people of Bolivia.

The organization’s guiding principle is that groups of committed volunteers can reach across international boundaries and make a dramatic difference in the lives of others.

In last week's program, we learned about how Mano a Mano has helped to improve healthcare and education in Bolivia. Today we’ll see how the organization also contributes to the nation’s economic wellbeing, with one such effort involving road construction.

We consider that if we want development in Bolivia’s poor communities, we have to provide roads and water. Roads because there are a lot of communities that don’t have any so their production, they cannot commercialize it in the markets. And that is what we have been doing.

In 2008, Mano a Mano greatly helped the small village of Cotagaita by constructing a road that allows residents to transport their farm products more efficiently. In the past, the villagers had to transport their peaches, pears, grapes and other produce to market over an inefficient, arduous route, a trip that took four days each way.

With financial support from the Caterpillar Foundation and Mano a Mano USA, Mano a Mano of Bolivia and a group of local volunteers built a new, 30 kilometer long stretch of road connecting the valley farmers with their markets in the local highland area. The travel time is now less than an hour.

Because I am sure that the produce we grow here and what we will harvest in the future will now be transported at a lower cost, we will be able to sell our produce while it is still ripe in the markets where more fruit is sold. It is in this way that parents will be helping their children and that, as a teacher, makes me very happy.

Upon completion of a road project with Mano a Mano, Don Felipe, Mayor of El Palmar, said, “We were living like animals in the jungle and Mano a Mano has opened the doors to the corral and set us free.”

In Bolivia, water is a highly valued commodity for it is needed in daily living as well as for the crops which sustains the rural families.

In Bolivia and many of the other underdeveloped countries, water is so precious because they just don't have it. In my particular case, as a child living in Bolivia, nightly we had to go and get water. Every day we never really knew if and when we were going to get the water. And today, people of course, in many parts of the world are still looking for water in that way.

So they know, and they really maximize the use of the water that they have. They don't waste. If they have maybe used it for washing the vegetables and so on, that water is used maybe to irrigate the one plant that they might have there. So it is used, it is not wasted.

A local woman in Choquechampi explained the dire situation in her small town, “Our water runs away and the corn produces little or dies of thirst. We know that an atajada (water reservoir) would hold rain water to channel to fields as our ancestors did. Please help us again. You know we have motivation and will work every day if you bring your machines and build with us. Then we could feed our children and sell the rest in the city.” One of Mano a Mano’s major undertakings is to build reservoirs to preserve natural rainwater.

With Mano a Mano, the techniques that we use are very simple because we’re not drilling, we’re not flooding. We’re creating these small water reservoirs and ponds to retain the rainwater. Just retain them because when they come, if you don’t have a means to retain them, they’ll be gone for good. And then, of course, families are desperate.

So that’s what we do, and it’s very proven, it works very, very well. Because we can see that families come to us and they say, “Look at what we have produced.” The corn that didn’t have any water or irrigation was one third the size of the corn that had irrigation. And so we can see that we’re really making a tremendous difference. And the only thing is water. Water, that’s it. That’s what makes the difference.

And what about drinking water?

Again, the families are using the water that we are retaining for drinking, because they say that they do not have any other option. We have to learn more about the other techniques that people are using to clean water and to make water available. And I think we will work with communities to be able to clean their water. But we can tell you that the water that these ponds are making possible is already 100 times cleaner than what they had before.

Mano a Mano has thus far constructed three reservoirs and six farm ponds that have benefitted thousands of families and helped many farmers to increase their agricultural yield.

There are various sizes of reservoirs. The first, the smallest one, which is what we would call an atajado, like a water pond, 120 x 120, that serves one to four families. We work on larger reservoirs that provide water to a community of 600 families, that would be about 3,500 people. These are very basic earthen levees that hold the water that ultimately gets used as irrigation water and then drinking water for communities.

Already an arid country, Bolivia has recently suffered from the effects of climate change. Hotter summers and less frequent rainfall have meant that the farmers of Laguna Sulti face the ever-increasing risk of crop failures and financial hardship.

In my hometown of Laguna Sulti, as a result of the environmental change. As a child, we, my parents, my father, planted potatoes. But for three decades, they haven’t planted potatoes because the water reliability is not there anymore. There’s less water, so because you need more water to grow potatoes, they don’t even plant that anymore. And even the corn is delayed by two or three months because there’s just not the assurance that they will have water.

The community approached Mano a Mano for help in building a large reservoir for irrigating their crops, and with the cooperation of local governments, funding from sponsors and the help of townspeople, the Laguna Sulti Water Reservoir was constructed. This massive reservoir holds enough water to irrigate the 1,300 acres of land tilled by 600 local farmers.

When it was dedicated on January 5, 2008, excited children paddled their boats in the new pond, while grateful farmers talked happily about planting more crops. This year, thanks to the reservoir’s precious water, the town enjoyed a bountiful harvest.

And just a couple of weeks ago, the residents invited Mano a Mano back to the town to show them the wonderful crops that they had produced, the dark, green, tall corn that they were raising. And they were actually harvesting already, and they said that not a single drop of water had flowed into town via the typical way. If it had not been for the water from the reservoir, they would all have had crop failures. But because of the water, they had this beautiful, dark green harvest. So we are making a difference.

Organic farming has been shown to provide higher yields with less damaging effects on the environment. With the construction of reservoirs providing much needed water supplies, Bolivian farmers seek a return to growing crops as nature had originally intended.

When the water is not as predictable, then they begin to look at alternatives, and of course hybrid seeds is one of the alternatives that they have because, of course, it’s a shorter growing season. But the drawbacks with that are, of course. that then you need pesticides, fertilizers and so on to grow these crops, and we know how damaging that is.

But today they also tell us that they want to go back to their own seeds. And as I mentioned, they showed us this beautiful, big, native corn that they are harvesting. So I think if we can work with them to make water available to them, they will go back to growing the very seeds and products that they’ve always been living with.

Mano a Mano has provided a lifeline for the many residents of rural towns through its construction of water reservoirs. For offering them a chance to provide for themselves and their families, the humble Bolivians are most thankful.

Don Sandro, who saw himself as an indentured servant; “wataruna” in the Quechua Inca word that means, literally, “tide man,” he walked for 10 hours to thank Mano a Mano for the gift of water. Because, as he said, now he was able to raise enough crops for his family. And he actually is going to be selling half of his harvest. And he feels free, because now he can control his destiny. And that was as a result of the water.

Don Nicholas, a resident of Uchuchi, expressed, “We have learned how to work with Mano a Mano, and we know that Mano a Mano delivers… the road from Cochabamba to Sucre is sowed with Mano a Mano projects.”

From its medical aid and clinics to sanitation and education infrastructure; from the construction of water reservoirs and roads to emergency air transport, Mano a Mano has offered to thousands of impoverished Bolivian families a newfound independence and hopeful outlook for a better future.

I think the fact that, really, they can control more their destiny. They say that if they can only have this infrastructure, that they will become self-sufficient, that they will grow the crops, and then they will take care of themselves and their children, they will begin contributing to their society.

So it's really the gift of freedom.

Right, yes. That's how they do feel, really that we're creating opportunities for them to really become self-sufficient.

Upon hearing of Mano a Mano’s selfless deeds, Supreme Master Ching Hai compliments their good work and contributes US$10,000 to help further their noble goal.

Our appreciation, Mr. Segundo Velasquez and all the staff and volunteers of Mano a Mano, for your noble love and dedicated assistance to Bolivian brethren. We wish you evermore success in their uplifting and life-changing endeavors.

For more information on Mano a Mano, please visit: www.ManoAMano.org Thank you for joining us today for Good People, Good Works. Up next is The World Around Us after Noteworthy News here on Supreme Master Television. May you be blessed with a life abundant in peace and happiness.