With only two weeks left to preparing Camino Al Futuro - the second annual work fair in Sucre, Bolivia - the Guia Foundation is at full pace organizing everything from sponsors, professionals, music bands, dancers as well as the daily regular activities of the office and its radio show.
With only three employees and one volunteer from the United States, there is no shortage of work this month.
However, even though seven-day weeks have become the norm in our schedule, an enormous help developed amongst the youth of Guia, creating a special kind of positivity and unity within the office.
This force really came about a few Sundays ago while a debate of young voices could be heard from the street out of the NGO's office.
As every Sunday here in Bolivia, the streets are usually quite calm compared to any other day of the week. Everyone either likes to take this day to spend time with the family or like me, spend the day washing clothes because the washer and dryer are quite uncommon here and the process can be quite long at times.
But with the streets at slow motion, Guia's youth was in full motion electing their first president, vice-president and so on. This was a new beginning for all of us, because without the motivation and passion from the youth, a huge ingredient would be missing into making Guia a positive voice within the community.
With new sustainable projects about to begin and the main problem of Sucre being the lack of motivation due to social and economical factors, Javier, one of our new participants came about with the idea to have an election amongst all the youth of our organization.
As a result, this would not only organize the youth in terms of help regarding tasks, but it would also generate a motivation amongst them. As now, they would not only be a participant, but also an important role model or figure within Guia and the community.
By nurturing relationships with these youth, self-confidence with themselves and amongst others will develop and will only be more beneficial to them and Guia on the long run, particularly when working along social issues.
Understanding them can be tricky at times, but even trickier when not from the culture and lived very different circumstances.
Nevertheless, with several heads of different backgrounds and ages, all together, a multitude of potential can form and be put to exercise in a very positive way.
As paint bottles and paintbrushes lie on the floor of our office, a beautiful banner with the words Camino Al Futuro is slowly coming to life. With a similar situation happening for the organization and the youth, more and more interesting and sustainable projects are in works in terms of employment, education and environmental.
If you would like some information regarding our projects, please contact Jessica Butler at [email protected].
You can also donate with Paypal either on our Facebook fan page which is called Fundacion Bolsa de Empleo Guia or at www.guiafoundation.org.
