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NEWS AND UPDATE!!! CENTRO MARIA CRISTINA – ‘NUEVO ROSTRO’

Some of you have already been informed. However, for those of you who have not heard the news, Hogar María Cristina is now Projects Abroad Bolivia’s star Care & Community placement and biggest project!!

On January 3rd, 2006, what used to be known as Hogar María Cristina, was handed over to the Fundación Cristo Vive – Bolivia (F.C.V.) for delegated administration. And Projects Abroad – Bolivia was behind the Fundación 100% in fighting for this administration. After a long struggle with the authorities (and still struggling in some aspect), mission accomplished!

Hermana Nancy Vega, member of the F.C.V. – Bolivia, has changed the name to Centro María Crisitina – ‘Nuevo Rostro’, meaning ‘New Face’, to honor the new administration, new staff, new infrastructure and new smiles! Projects Abroad Bolivia forms part of the committee that runs the Centro as well.

Since January, Projects Abroad volunteers along with volunteers from the Fundación Cristo Vive and new staff of María Cristina have been working hard to clean up, organize and improve the home. As some of you know, the home has been through many struggles and remodeling, constantly changing environments to best suit the needs of staff and children. Even the municipality has been a part of it all. Although it took ages to finally get done, the highway has been paved and is now looking much nicer than it ever was. It’s amazing what we’ve accomplished in such a short time! Not only have improvements been made to the infrastructure, but the staff and volunteers who work on a daily basis, creating and carrying out activities with the children have made advances as well. The social worker has also found the homes of many children who are now living with their families and some children have been moved to centers that specialize in the special needs of those particular children. It is a great experience to see the changes, step by step, turning Maria Cristina into what we had always imagined it could be! Just take a look for yourselves….

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For those of you unfamiliar with Maria Cristina, just look at the pictures to see the difference. We’ll start from the entrance…

This was Maria Cristina before….back in 2002, when Projects Abroad first began helping at the home.

Then the road construction began in 2003-2005, yeah…it took a looooong time! The municipality expropriated from everyone…about 2 meters, so basically they had to chop off the front end of every sidewalk, entrance and home, leaving it like this….

A group of our dedicated volunteers who went in to help clean up and paint in Maria Cristina

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Once the new highway was paved and finished, it was time to begin cleaning up and fixing up the sidewalks, entrances and façades.

Front left side view You can see the sidewalk has already been built

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This is a front view of Maria Cristina while workers are finishing up the front entrance way. They’re teeny tiny (the workers), but they’re there!

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And A!!! The façade completely done. It took a few designs and ideas on what to do with such a hideous façade, but, with new Paint, a beautiful cactus garden and of course, a sign welcoming everyone to the

new home!

Now let’s go in! Here are some before (anytime between 2004-2006) and after shots (2006!) of various parts of construction.

Before After

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When the new highway was built, it was raised, therefore we had the workers fill in the front area of the entrance to even out with the highway. So, we had to make stairs and a ramp to go down into the main patio of María Cristina.

The windows of the Instituto Maria Cristina have been closed off and a mural painted over.

The wall before the mural

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The mural!!

What used to be the offices of Social work, office and part of the food deposit has been turned into a bedroom. Walls were knocked down and space opened to create a huge dormitory for the girls.

What it used to look like

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The office, deposit and social work area during remodeling

Volunteers Sanne Jensen, Aoife Doran and psychologist, Patricia Bermúdez at work, cleaning up the bedroom after remodeling.

The new bedroom!!

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What used to be the office / meeting area and part of the school area have now been turned into the “enfermería” and a small room for an office for the clinical psychologist and doctor to use. The remodeling was done by SEDEGES but the new administration cleaned and designated these areas.

The old “enfermería”

The new “Enfermería”

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The Doctor’s office, there wasn’t one before. The kitchen was repainted and a new deposit was added on to part of the kitchen with what used to be the “panadería”. We are still in the process of completing the kitchen and dining area by placing tiles on all bottom cupboards.

Before After

Before After

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Before After

The cupboards in the dining hall, before and while being fixed.

The cupboards of the kitchen (to be tiled also)

The dining room now!

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Remember the bathrooms upstairs? I don’t believe anyone will forget! One of the toilets was broken and everything was dirty. Projects Abroad staff and volunteers, along with the Fundación Cristo Vive (total of 7 women!)went in to clean it up and see for yourself. We had water pipes and connections fixed and the entire bathroom repainted. This area used to be used by the girls upstairs. Now we have designated this to bathrooms for volunteer and staff use only.

The bathroom before

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The bathrooms cabinets fixed and sinks clean

The toilets….ugh….before and after

The bedrooms next to the bathrooms upstairs have been cleaned by Projects Abroad and F.C.V. volunteers and painted. Cleaning the floors was a nightmare! But Hermana Nancy and her staff taught us how to dance on metal sponges and it really gets the job done! This area had been designated as volunteer bedrooms for those who stayed overnight. However, they have now been turned into a craft room and a deposit.

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Volunteers cleaning bedrooms

Volunteers scrubbing the wood floors (make it shine guys!)

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Before, during and after cleaning shots (windows are now fixed)

Before and after shots Remember where the “educadores” slept upstairs? This room was also cleaned by Projects Abroad and FCV volunteers and turned into a dining room / kitchen / meeting area for staff use only. There is a refrigerator and a small kitchenette.

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The educators bedroom, now turned into a dining room/kitchen for staff

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The entire upstairs bedrooms were cleared, painted, cleaned and furnished for offices. Administration now makes up the entire second floor between the volunteer’s area, the main office, social work, and a staff room with lockers to place personal items. We moved the children from the upstairs to prevent any accidents from happening (which had unfortunately happened in the past).

Before After

Before After

One of the bedrooms, turned into the main administration office.

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The last room upstairs, turned into staff room.

Before After (This room has now been designated to a physiotherapy unit to work with some of the children)

The children’s closets have been fixed and painted.

The closets, before and after!

And a few more photos of the finished paint job on the second floor. Well, what a difference!!

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View of the stairway and hallway upstairs, newly painted!

View of upstairs hall painted

View of upstairs balcony painted

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SEDEGES separated a part of the gymnasium to have bedrooms for the children and painted only part of it. Although not too practical, it did provide with more space.

The gymnasium before

Before and after shots of bedrooms in gymnasium

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The bedrooms in the gymnasium

Remember the garden? How many clean up days did Projects Abroad have to clear the rubbish? Well, we’ve done it again and now keeping it up on a daily basis. It looks great! Completely different!!

Garbage thrown in the garden and burned

Volunteers digging out buried garbage and cleaning up

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Volunteer Aoife Doran gardening Volunteers cleaning the garden

Volunteer Sanne Jensen taking a break!

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Staff and children helping with Enjoying the clean garden with a game the final clean up of football.

FCV volunteers painted the center piece of the garden and placed a small Virgin Mary and flowers to beautify. Grass cut and maintained.

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The playground has been painted and fixed up!

The swing and slide painted (Jessica Seymour, Miguel and Maria)

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A new cover was placed on the wood playground to shield the children from the sun so they can enjoy the park! And a sandbox is being implemented too.

The park before

The new cover over the wood park.

The greenhouse has been fixed up for the children to have yet another activity to do. New pipes have been placed to be able to water the garden and use in the greenhouse. And if you can see, there’s been a small basketball court added on in the far corner.

View of the greenhouse and basketball court.

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The old storage room (nicknamed the “perrera”) has been cleared of all old mattresses and junk (basically). We are looking into using the area to build either bedrooms or three activity rooms and maybe add a bathroom.

The storage room full of old mattresses and metal beds.

The storage room cleaned out and waiting for construction.

The construction has begun, but we don’t know if funding will be sufficient to complete. This is only one side of the old storage. We still have another side to do.

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Last but not least, we have a logo!!

This is our first logo (trial)….

And this is our current logo.

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OUR FUTURE PLANS… And our main concern at the moment is separating boys from girls. We have had some problems trying to control sexual behavior, which can in the future create some extra problems for Maria Cristina. Therefore our plans are to add a fence or wall in the middle of the garden and separate bedrooms and activity rooms for boys from girls. There is plenty of space to do this and not take away garden area from the children. There are plans to finish the storage area in the back garden (page 23) and then complete the second half of the same space to create bedrooms. We are also trying to figure out what to do with the old swimming pool that is located in the middle of the back garden. It is a huge space gone to waste. Initially, we planned to have it taken out, but the cost just for that runs around $3000. So, we are now looking into taking advantage of what is already built to add on and complete, making more rooms for activities. One thing lacking in Maria Cristina are covered areas for activities.

Another idea is completing the second floor of the bedrooms implemented in the gymnasium as well as a staircase. We had the roof built with the idea of doing something like that in the future. ….That will also have to wait.

Before After

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We would like to thank all of those who have helped raise funds that have allowed us to make such a change in Maria Cristina. It has been strictly through donations that we have been able to improve the infrastructure. The government does not provide an annual budget for these improvements. Volunteers and their families and friends….without your thoughts, generosity and time….none of this would have been possible! A most sincere thank you from all of us at Maria Cristina… With a final note for all of you, from one of our dearest volunteers, Kyle Saggers, who is still with us today…

Until next time….

Daniela Viljoen

Country Director Projects Abroad – Bolivia

Cochabamba – Bolivia September 2006