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 State as a young man, he saw an opportunity to help his homeland.
Segundo Velasquez(m): 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.
For more information on Mano a Mano, please visit:
www.ManoAMano.org