Kids at Risk

Project Profile

Jireh

Jireh works with children and adolescents who have been victims of violence and aims to provide children and families a safe place to find restoration physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The centre helps provide support, counselling, and teaches valuable life skills. Support this project with financial contributions and prayer.    

Cause:

Location

Field Staff:

Local Partner:

Bolivian Baptist Union (UBB), OBADES 

The Situation

The Jireh project is in the south of Cochabamba, where most of its inhabitants are immigrants from the interior of the country (La Paz, Potosí, and Oruro). Poverty runs high with a lack of employment opportunities, and violence runs throughout the region. These rates of violence are the effect of family disintegration, the absence of parental figures, and the degradation of women in society. As a result of below-average national minimum wages, children struggle with malnutrition, desertion from school, overcrowding, and dysfunctional families. Currently, unemployment has increased due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving more families exposed to extreme poverty. Through Sinai Church, the project helps provide space utilized by vulnerable families, like classrooms, a kitchen, bathrooms, and a sports field.  

The family also received support in construction materials such as plaster and cement for the renovation of their home, thus avoiding the proliferation of the vinchuca in their home due to Chagas disease. Through the project, a small garden was also provided to improve the family’s diet, which Damiana uses to supplement her goat raising.

Jireh works with children and adolescents who have been victims of violence and aims to provide children and families a safe place to find restoration physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The centre helps provide support, counselling, and teaches valuable life skills. Support this project with financial contributions and prayer.    

The Situation

The Jireh project is in the south of Cochabamba, where most of its inhabitants are immigrants from the interior of the country (La Paz, Potosí, and Oruro). Poverty runs high with a lack of employment opportunities, and violence runs throughout the region. These rates of violence are the effect of family disintegration, the absence of parental figures, and the degradation of women in society. As a result of below-average national minimum wages, children struggle with malnutrition, desertion from school, overcrowding, and dysfunctional families. Currently, unemployment has increased due to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving more families exposed to extreme poverty. Through Sinai Church, the project helps provide space utilized by vulnerable families, like classrooms, a kitchen, bathrooms, and a sports field.  

How We Are Helping

Together with the support of the local church, Sinaí, which advocates for children and adolescents, CBM provides:  

Skills training and discipleship  

Staff receive training on relevant topics and the care of vulnerable children and adolescents from institutions, as well as providing vocational guidance and enhancement of the technical and manual skills of adolescents in the project.  

Prevention of violence  

Teaching parents to improve their family relationships based on biblical truths, while providing health and psycho-social development support for children and parents.  

Basic care for adolescents and families  

Supporting good nutrition, health, and training in hygiene habits by providing a safe space to practice good hygiene (with water, showers, and toilets).  

Photo of Bolivian child smiling on a bench
Photo of Bolivian boys smiling and playing

The Impact of Our Work

Manuel lives in a rented room in Cerro Verde with his family – his mother, three brothers, and a nephew. Where they live is very dangerous due to the presence of gangs, drug use, and alcoholism. Manuel came to the Jireh project with the help of some members of the local church. They told Manuel’s mother about the project so she could receive the benefits and support of the project she needed. Manuel participates in all of the programmed activities, receives basic dry food due to the pandemic as well as medical check-ups, and takes part in workshops and devotionals. Through the project, Manuel has built better relationships with others and has gained the confidence to express his thoughts and feelings.   

“I like to have lunch at the project because I get to eat with my friends, and the food is delicious. I want a stable life for my mother, so she does not have to worry about the rent. Every time we have to move because something happens, and I don’t want my mother to continue like this because she feels bad, she would like to have a house for my family.”  
Photo of a Jireh staff with two female students
“Stories like Manuel’s are meaningful to me because I can see the courage he has to confront life. Seeing the love he has for his family without letting resentment take hold of his heart is to be admired.”