Friday, February 2, 2007

Casa has achieved much, but dreams of doing more

Casa de La Amistad has achieved much, but dreams of doing more

In its 13 years of existence, the Casa de La Amistad (Casa) can point to proud achievements, but it dreams of doing much more, acting director Carla Botani, told the Laurier Heights Baptist Church advance team at a meeting in Cochabamba during the team’s first week in Bolivia.

Casa was started by the Bolivian Baptist women in 1994, but taken over by OBADES, the Bolivian equivalent of the Sharing Way three years ago. Casa provides programming for about 170 children who live with their parents in both the San Sebastian men’s and women’s prisons across the square from the Casa and in the San Antonio men’s prison a few blocks away. About 300 children live in these prisons. Programs run by other organizations help some of the other children.

Casa operates during the school year. As the Laurier team visited in January, the Bolivian equivalent of July, the children were on summer vacation but over 40 attended a party arranged so they could meet the Laurier team and celebrate their bright new classrooms, painted by the Laurier team. (The party has been previously reported on in this blog.) Pre-school, after-school care and homework help is the primary programming offered in the classroom like settings of the three storey Casa building. About 80% of the children do their homework at the Casa. The supplementary education is working because all of the children completed their school year. The crowded and active prisons would not allow most children an opportunity to concentrate on their studies and complete their homework.

Other services are provided. Children are fed lunches, offered some clothing and shoes and benefit from training in hygiene, visits by dental students and access to computers. As well health care insurance is purchased for every child. The Bolivian government gives some financial support to the lunch program, based on the number of children. It should be noted that the prisons only provide a very limited amount of funds for food such that almost every prisoner is dependent on someone from outside the prison to help them.



.Laurier Team and Casa Staff after successful Fiesta

Casa staff includes a director, psychologist, paid teachers and some teenage and youth volunteers who help operate the programs. The teachers are not always adequately trained. Medical volunteers also contribute time on a scheduled basis.



Just as importantly as meeting physical needs, Casa attempts to teach values such as justice, love, faith and Christian principles. This teaching is important, Botani says, because the children will be returning to a jail atmosphere. “It is not healthy for children to live in prisons,” she says.

Although some parents are in jail for years simply because the judicial system has not gotten around to trying them yet, others are there because they are robbers and cocaine dealers. These people are not good examples for children and they act and speak in ways children should not witness, Botani explained.

Living conditions depend to some degree on income. Children live in men’s prisons as well as with their mothers in the women’s prison. A rich prisoner can pay for special accommodation that enables him to live in a comfortable suite and bring in his wife and children. On the other hand, in the women’s jail, a mother may have no choice but to live with more than one child in a cell one and half meters wide with the children sleeping with her and on the floor.

Botani dreams of more ambitious programming. If an adjoining property could be purchased there would be room to expand the project to provide some skill training which could be shared with the Jireh project. Ideally she would like to have a residence where the children could stay overnight, outside the jail, but still be close enough to make regular visits to their parents. “To be able to provide a nursery and a foster home would allow the children a much better chance” explained Botani. The owner of the adjoining property would likely sell if Casa could come up with sufficient funds. A detailed plan of the opportunity and requirements was provided to us by Botani. (contact Ray Johnson for more details).

Another dream of Botani is to be able to work with families just released from jail as this is often a time of instability. Families are released without resources and unless they can be supported until they have acquired jobs and an income, they may be forced to return to the lifestyle which put them in jail in the first place.

At present Casa is currently trying to address some of the problems it has witnessed in the dynamics of the families by offering family counseling to help them learn how to operate in a less aggressive mode.

No comments: