Educating Quakers

Bolivia and the U.S.

Does School Help You Be a Better Quaker?

1. Have you learned anything in school this year that helps you be a better Quaker?

2. Is there anything that you learn at school or that happens at school that makes it harder to be a good Quaker?

3. Do you have any other problems at school?

4. Quakers in Bolivia believe that education is very important. They have some of the same problems we do with schools. They also have some different problems.

Bolivia has the largest number of Quakers in the Western Hemisphere outside the United States

Most live in the Department of La Paz. They live in the high plains or the city

The Story of Alicia

Alicia grew up high in the mountains. It is very cold. Most houses and schools do not have heat.

Alicia helped in the fields when she was a child. Alicia and her family are Aymara Indians. They speak to each other in the Aymara language.

She and her family planted potatoes. Potatoes originally came from Bolivia and Peru.

Her grandparents raised animals to help support the family.

Her grandmother milked the cow.

She helped her family with the llamas. Most Quaker children in the mountains help their families with the farms.

Alicia was able to go to school. She had to learn Spanish in school. All her classes were in Spanish.

Alicia wanted to go to college, but she had to study very hard. The classes were all in Spanish and they were very hard.

Her parents helped her pay for college the first year. The second year North American Quakers helped her pay.

The Story of Ruben

Ruben also grew up in the mountains. There was no school near his home. His parents took him to a Quaker boarding school in the town of Achacachi.

His family sold some of their animals and vegetables to pay for his school.

Here is a video of students at one of the Quaker Schools in the mountains http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D5fJl

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Ruben went to college and became a teacher at a Quaker school.

In 2008, Ruben and Alicia both came to the U.S. to work and study in Quaker Schools for a year.

You can see video interviews with Alicia and Ruben here http://bqef.org/?q=node/397

Ruben shared music with students and with Quaker groups. Now he and Alicia are back in Bolivia using what they learned to improve schools there.

Benito’s Story• Many children live

very far from schools. Benito had to walk two hours down the mountain to high school every morning and walk two hours up the mountain at night to go home.

He also got a scholarship from the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund to go to College.

Benito wanted to help the children in his hometown go to school. The school was still too far for most children to walk every day.

He set up a safe home near the school where they could stay on school nights. It is called the Internado.

Now children live at the Internado during the week so they have time to study and play.

Do you think education is important for Quakers in Bolivia? Do you want to help? (go to BQEF.org for more information and ways to help.