Regions and Examples of Our Projects

Manq’a Sostenible aims to improve the living conditions of vulnerable youth, mostly women, in peri-urban and rural contexts of Bolivia. Using culinary training as a tool for social inclusion, they provide practical and comprehensive training, developing technical, life, entrepreneurial and digital skills among young trainees. They also promote access to sources of income through employment or micro-enterprise. With the transfer of their model to public technical training centres, and the implementation of a pilot experience in dual training, Manq’a also contributes to creating new perspectives for technical training in Bolivia, with a current and market-oriented approach.

Caritas Boliviana helps young women – many of them single mothers – living in poverty and exposed to different types of violence. By training women leaders who then share their skills with peers, the young women learn how to detect and prevent situations of violence and where to find help. To promote economic independence of young women, training in technical, financial and soft skills is offered, and they receive help to find a job or to start/strengthen their own micro-enterprise. Women leaders are also supported to develop proposals for public policies that promote safe environments and income opportunities specifically for vulnerable young women.

Progettomondo Mlal believes that prisoners – especially youth and women – given appropriate attention can desist from criminal activities and achieve effective social reintegration. They work with a restorative justice approach, centred on encouraging prisoners take the lead in their rehabilitation process, acknowledging the damage they have caused and – if possible – finding ways to repair it. In this context, the arts have proven to be very effective in strengthening skills such as resilience, expression and management of emotions and conflict resolution. Through partnerships and advocacy work, Progettomondo Mlal promotes the incorporation of the arts and other specific care, training and post-release programmes in the criminal justice system.

Fundación Machaqa Amawta works with children and adolescents with and without disabilities in La Paz, Riberalta and Guayaramerín who find themselves in situations of violence or at high risk. They promote protective environments to prevent, report and address violence – especially sexual violence – against these groups, through awareness-raising and training with an inclusive approach for students, parents, teachers and the community. They also provide specific assistance for disabled children and adolescents in situations of violence. With the participation in inter-institutional networks, training for public servants, guides and protocols in alternative languages, they also promote an inclusive approach within public social services.

Good practices and innovative initiatives developed while working with vulnerable youth often remain isolated and with limited impact. The Youth Exchange Programme creates opportunities for sharing ideas, learnings and experiences among youth from different contexts, as well as among organisations currently partnering with MariaMarina Foundation that work with young people. Meetings, visits and joint capacity-building sessions are carried out, and a virtual training platform for youth advocacy is being designed.  Young people are trained and supported to collectively develop and implement small projects that respond to challenges they have identified in their own contexts, and in doing so are encouraged to become leaders and agents of positive change.