Project implementation of "Education Remains" succeeds despite pandemic year

Usually, an "Education Remains" project involves a volunteer from Aktion Sodis travelling from Germany to Bolivia. On site, an eight-week project course is held at a vocational school with the vocational students, which is prepared together with the teacher and the volunteer. In this course, a needs analysis will be used to develop a concept that can be implemented in the Micani region. The rural Micani is located in Norte de Potosí and is one of the poorest areas in the Andean country of Bolivia. After the theoretical elaboration of a needs-based project, its implementation takes place: Normally, the vocational students travel with their teacher and the volunteer to some villages in the region in order to be able to implement their developed concept on site. In 2018, for example, the vocational branch of farmers developed the concept of a school garden and then planted it in various village schools to counter the problem of malnutrition among children. The idea of the "Education Remains" project is that both vocational students gain practical experience in their professional field and the people in Micani can benefit from it. "Education Remains" has existed in this form since 2015 and is thus the oldest Aktion Sodis project.


Last year, "Education remains" could not take place due to the pandemic and this year, too, we had to doubt for a long time about a possible implementation until a solution was finally found. A long-standing partner of the project is the Instituto Tecnológico Sayarinapaj (ITS), a vocational school on the outskirts of Cochabamba. Since both the ITS and our "Education Remains" team wanted to offer the students the chance to gain additional qualifications - even in times of pandemic - all levers were pulled! Instead of the usual trip out, our "Bildung bleibt" team, together with the teachers, implemented the theoretical part of the course digitally. This part took place in May and June this year and was supported not only by one:r volunteer:er from Aktion Sodis, but by the entire team of six. This meant that we were able to support both professions that had applied for the project: gastronomy and social work.

[In this article, the focus is on the implementation of the social work project].

What was hardly imaginable at the beginning of the course (due to the pandemic) could come true in October 2021 after all: So this year, the social work class went to the Micani region. Together with their teacher Brisilia Matias Camacho, they spent four days there to implement their previously developed project idea. They received support in the planning as well as the implementation on site from our partner organisation Fundación Sodis, which is based locally in Bolivia. In order to reach as many communities as possible with their activities, the students spent two days each in the communities of Ulupiquiri, Ipote, Luquipampa, Ala Cruz and Micani. The workshops mainly dealt with the issue of gender justice. Depending on the local situation, either primary school pupils, teachers, parents or entire families were the participants of the course, so that the workshops were adapted to the respective target groups. Liliana, one of the accompanying staff members of the Fundación Sodis, told us that the workshops were very positively received despite (partial) initial scepticism. She said that the students' work on the issue had given them a good understanding of the topic and had thus had a great impact. Among other things, the interest of some parents was aroused, who directly asked for further workshops. They said that they could learn a lot from this and also reflect better on the gender roles within their partnership.