School Supplies for Bolivian Children

Provide poor children in rural Bolivia the supplies they need to attend and stay in school.

Bolivia is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America, with 60% of the population living under the poverty line, and widespread unemployment and underemployment. Through education, motivated children may be able to find an alternative to the life of grinding subsistence agriculture into which they were born. But in remote areas of Bolivia like the Eliodoro Camacho province, many children never start school, or drop out early - especially girls. Only 40% of rural children continue their education beyond the third grade.

To help rural families with the financial burden of sending their children to school, the Bolivian nonprofit Cree & Sueña (Believe & Dream) distributes school supplies in the remote area north of the capital city of La Paz. Puerto Carabuco, Saavedra, Mocomoco, Muñecas, Puerto Carabuco, and Omasuyos are among the small towns to benefit from the program. The children need these supplies in order to participate in their curriculums, but purchasing them is an extra burden on rural families living on the knife's edge of poverty.

You can help. This Gift That Gives More™ provides a child in Bolivia with three months' worth of school supplies, including:

• Backpack, if needed
• Blue, black, and red pens
• Plain, blue, and red pencils
• Set of 12 colored pencils
• Metal pencil case
• Erasers and pencil sharpener
• Notebooks
• Ruler
• Children's scissors
• Set of 12 markers
• Small bottles of glue
• Watercolor paint set

The most recent grant provided supplies for 150 kids in the village of La Paz.

"In my first year of teaching, I was shocked by the number of students that did not have school supplies. The worry, I think, is there are not any excuse from students as to why they didn’t have supplies because they really do not have any, I realized that many of them simply could either not afford them or were in situations where caregivers did not make school supplies a priority. In my second year, The Believe and Dream Foundation came to supply every student with a binder, a spiral notebook, and something to write with. We are so happy for that because it improves the education for them". -A local Schoolteacher

Cree & Sueña (Believe & Dream) is a Bolivian nonprofit charity with volunteers based in La Paz and Seattle. Its mission is to spread joy and bring smiles to the faces of Bolivian children in rural areas by distributing toys, gifts, and school supplies to children whose families cannot afford them.