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.

Mano a Mano first means hand-in-hand in Spanish.

Hallo, beneficent viewers, and welcome to today’s Good People: Good Works, featuring part one 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. Mano a Mano’s founder and president, Segundo Velasquez, grew up with his parents and seven siblings on a small farm in the beautiful, mountainous South American country of Bolivia, where nearly 65% of the residents have no access to medical care. When Segundo moved to the United States as a young man, he saw an opportunity to help his homeland.

Well, the first thing was really, I think, the incredible surplus, the abundance that we have in the US, and in the Western countries. And the thing that really hit me the most was also, traveling back to Bolivia to see my parents, I would see this incredible poverty. And actually that was really the motivation for starting Mano a Mano, for collecting the surplus medical supplies that we have in the US, and then sending that to Bolivia to make it available to organizations that are helping the poor.

Segundo’s siblings, who still lived in Bolivia at the time, shared his desire to help their country.

Well, 14 years ago there was a dream of helping poor communities in Bolivia. So as family, starting with Segundo and my other siblings, we began to work helping poor people with our own resources.

In 1994, Segundo and his wife, Joan, founded Mano a Mano International Partners, with the modest goal of collecting boxes of hand-held medical instruments donated by US healthcare providers and suppliers to ship to Bolivia. Focusing on the nation’s rural areas, they soon realized that much more help was needed.

We began working in the countryside, because in the communities nearby, there they have benefits, because the hospital is half an hour away. But in the countryside, you can walk for two days without reaching a doctor or a hospital. So we decided to build hospitals at that distance from cities. But when we went to build hospitals, there were no roads. So we began to buy one machine then another to build roads, schools and hospitals in the countryside.

As they began to build these facilities, the Bolivian people’s other needs became evident, and Mano a Mano rose to the challenge.

We started with the medical supplies, providing these medical supplies to organizations that are helping the poor. We expanded into building actually the infrastructure of medical clinics to provide care, and then we expanded into building schools, housing for teachers, and today we’re really focusing quite a bit on water, and creating an infrastructure to be able to provide water that is used primarily for irrigation.

After learning of the dedicated efforts of Mano a Mano and the Velasquez family, other individuals and organizations began to volunteer their help.

Organizations really started to notice the work that we were doing, and began participating in this. We looked for resources in the US to buy, not only to build the infrastructure in Bolivia, but to buy the equipment to execute these projects. It's the partnering with organizations here in the US, Canada, and also being able to challenge local governments in Bolivia o to partner with us, and communities. And together, really, we're building and we're creating opportunities for the poor in Bolivia.

We believe that, as human beings, we have the responsibility to help each other. Then we all must try to help each other. Those that have more and those that have less should collaborate.

Since its inception, Mano a Mano has provided almost 300,000 vaccinations, a million kilograms of medical supplies and many new health clinics for the Bolivian people. On June 20, 2009, Mano a Mano opened its 100th clinic, a beautiful hospital for infants and mothers in Mizque, a rural city located 180 kilometers from Cochabamba with about 30,000 residents. The dedication of the new facility, along with a 14-classroom school and an administrative building was celebrated with a large gathering of international and local volunteers.

To date, Mano a Mano has completed 112 health clinics that have provided care for over two million patients. Through its work, the dedicated group has also helped greatly in lowering Bolivia’s infant mortality rate. During the first half of 2010, Mano a Mano health clinics delivered 749 babies, all of whom survived.

And there are many, many stories that we can say. People that walked for 19 hours, but couldn't make it to the clinic, but the staff was able to respond to them. This one case, a lady was walking to the clinic to give birth for 15 hours, and she could no longer go on. But the staff was there; they came to assist her and were able to save her life and that of the child. There are stories like that that we hear of the impact and the difference that we are making.

To further improve healthcare delivery to remote, rural areas, Mano a Mano purchased two small aircrafts, enabling doctors, dentists and their staff to serve dozens of communities. These planes have also airlifted 477 patients from these inaccessible regions for emergency care.

Medical evacuation, where we get calls from isolated areas via HF (high frequency) radio because there are no telephones; there is no other way of communication. Some of the places there are some roads, they call them roads, it takes six, eight hours, and we can go in 20 minutes.

And so if it’s an emergency situation, we can get them to medical attention a lot quicker. And in the jungle areas up north, there are no roads and so there we are really their link to getting medical attention, and to getting help.

In addition, Mano a Mano works diligently to improve education in Bolivia. With the help of over 182,000 hours of work from Bolivian volunteers, the organization has completed 33 classroom and teacher-housing projects and 30 sanitation developments. In the small town of San Pedro, the children used to attend school in an old, dilapidated building.

When it's raining heavily, the water gets in through holes in the roof.

I am the math teacher. I can tell you it's very uncomfortable to work in these conditions, as you can see for yourselves. But we are doing everything possible to achieve the best level of education that we can.

With Mano a Mano providing the materials and supplies, and community members pitching in with the physical labor, a new, two-story, 10-classroom school was built. Mano a Mano then equipped the facility with desks, chairs, chalkboards and other items. When the new school opened, officials and local residents held a joyful ceremony, during which Mano a Mano physician Dr. Jose Velasquez happily informed the children, “This school was built for you.”

Many people are really, in their own way, trying to always think... about their families or their countries, to help them. But I think we need, all of us, to really pool our resources and our efforts to make a difference. And I know that together we are making a tremendous difference. I think we have a really wonderful model that delivers the product and gets the results. And we would be grateful to people who might consider partnering with us to continue to create opportunities for the poor.

How did the construction of a short stretch of road make life much easier for two Bolivian communities? What simple, affordable project has helped to double the income of local farmers? Find out next Sunday on Good People, Good Works, as we present our concluding episode featuring Mano a Mano, the remarkable organization dedicated to improving the lives of the Bolivian people.

For more information on Mano a Mano, please visit: www.ManoAMano.org

Thank you for joining us for today’s program. Now please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for The World Around Us, right after Noteworthy News. May your charitable hearts be graced with evermore fulfillment and blessed rewards.